Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume11 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 4===

A prank.

Those professors.

Operation.

“………………………………………………………………………………………………Umm?”

Kamijou had heard it himself, but he still couldn’t believe it.

What was with this light mood?

Those cheerful voices sounded like two children digging a pitfall in a field somewhere.

“Johann Valentin Andreae.”

Anna Kingsford sighed again.

In exasperation.

“It all began with him. And ❌ everything that changes the 🌍 begins as some grand strategy or plan.”

The two boys had no idea Kamijou’s party was observing them.

In fact, they were upset about being crammed into such a small room.

“Besides, the Dark Ages are over. Over! No longer will our Germanic people be seen as the enemy of European culture by the fools who refuse to think for themselves. We live in a new era where everyone is familiar with the concept of the Renaissance! Instead of waiting for a drop of miracle to trickle down to our parched lips, we can mix our own potions and publish our own newspapers! Paintings have depth thanks to perspective and there are naked statues aplenty! The people and the cities have received the visual blessings of the Renaissance, so it’s wrong to force everyone to think of god in the one ‘accepted’ view.”

“Johann.”

“This young man is not arguing against there being just one god. I’m not interested in the complicated arguments over what exactly the Greek Zeus or Roman Venus were or over whether the great Caesar and Aristotle went to heaven or hell because they died without being baptized. Those kinds of details aren’t for the young. I’m just saying each individual theologian should have their own stance on how they think about and view the one god. This is Tübingen! We’re paying an arm and a leg in tuition to receive an education in ''that subject''!! So what is this!? The professors think they’re better than us just because they’ve lived longer. They think the world’s reformation ended with criticizing the old church for its indulgences and all that. Give those educated idiots enough free time and they’ll stir up trouble by writing a book criticizing innocent witches or something. Like our country’s greatest author of nonsense: Heinrich Kramer! There are still so many real problems to deal with. The ideal is to allow free debate of all possibilities and then collect the best of them and link them together into an even better theory, right? This is a university, so that’s what we should all be collaborating on. But how are we supposed to debate anything when simple thinking is deemed ‘sinful’!? What’s even the point of attending university then!? You might as well go to a tiny rural church and listen to the ancient priest’s sermons!!”

“Johann, you’re rambling. And this is why everyone says you’re dangerous. You’ll be burned as a witch eventually, I swear.”

“But it’s all true. The adults just don’t like it when you question them, so they try to silence anyone who’s too smart for them. Right?”

“Don’t drag me into this. Your grandfather is weeping.”

“You sound just like the teachers, Christoph. It’s true my grandfather is famous in the field of theology, but that’s all anyone knows about him. Just so you know, he’s far more active and playful than me back home. If he was as strict and serious as everyone thinks he is, he wouldn’t have fathered 18 children, now would he?”

“No comment. Geez, there’s nothing like an insider’s view, huh? So what’s this Rosen thing? What does all this have to do with that flimsy booklet? I don’t want to be in the dark when your trouble hits the university, so tell me how this prank works. I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

“This young man is glad you asked!!”

Johann Valentin Andreae energetically swung his hands around and spoke theatrically loud.

“Rosen…creutz!! The rose and the cross. Heh heh. A mysterious combination like that is sure to grab everyone’s attention, don’t you think!?”

“Is it? But there’s a trick, right? Tell me.”

“Heh heh. My erudite and impoverished friend Christoph Besold. Are you familiar with the Andreae house crest?”

“So that’s it, you troublemaker.”

“Yes, it is four red roses and a diagonal white cross. Everyone will be worshiping this young man!”

It wasn’t just Kamijou’s modern viewpoint.

Johann’s friend from the University of Tübingen was also exasperated.

In the distant illusion, Johann waved the booklet between his fingers.

“Rosencreutz. The two of us will set this up as a legendary magic cabal. This young man would like the help of your unnecessarily knowledgeable mind! The Chemical Wedding. It’s the perfect name for the current era. Everyone is familiar with flasks and beakers now, so even the general public will be interested! Because the Renaissance changed the world a short while ago!!”

“To make it a legend, you’ll have to cover a long period of time.”

“This young man is well aware. What if we say it was established 200 years ago? A mysterious organization acted from the shadows to smash the petrified knowledge of the church and end the mysterious Dark Ages while they spread the light of the Renaissance across the current age, but this collection of true wise men was not satisfied with just that. They are a cabal capable of changing the world. A good lie is not a perfectly flawless myth. To give it verisimilitude, it must feel lived in and match the changing of the world around us all. The people have grown bored of the Renaissance. They seek the next great change!! See, see!? The general public will believe it in a heartbeat!”

Bored of the Renaissance.

The changing of the world.

Like when high-speed flat-rate internet swept across the world, or when online shopping and smartphones changed how people lived their lives. Had Johann taken advantage of the idea that a single good idea could change everything?

In an age of plenty, people were not necessarily satisfied.

Those people would have their own complaints.

“This young man will release these all-consuming omnivorous fish into the waters of public opinion,” said Johann with a grin and the thin booklet in hand. “This young man hasn’t decided how long yet, but probably at least 2 years. Just the one booklet will seem too sudden, so we need to set the stage by first leaking a few fragments of supposed documents. Of course, if it looks like the truth is coming out early, we can make our move before it all falls apart.”

“You’re going to hide that you faked it all for no good reason for two whole years? If nothing else, this is a great example of the terrifying focus of someone with too much time on their hands.”

“Ideologies spread in no time. And if the topic is to spread among the educated, maybe we should aim for the salons for playwrights or composers? Those people are always searching for mystical material, be it Greek or Roman or even the Germanic Valkyries or Egyptian Isis and Nephthys. They’ll leap at a mysterious world-spanning cabal that no one’s ever heard of. If we add in a king or queen or princess, we’ll be reeling them in like salmon or anchovies.”

“I’m impressed, Johann. Just how many enemies are you planning to make? Trying to set a new world record for how much trouble you can cause with words alone?”

“No one in the world can put a lid on the truth for their own convenience. This might only be a thin handmade booklet right now, but once plenty of copies have spread around and people are whispering of its existence, even the most absurd story starts to sound a lot more real. We can fake multiple sources all on our own. That way it will grow to the point that not even those professors can ignore it. They look all dignified now, but just you wait until they’re onboard with it too.”

“Well, those old men have all learned the history of what happened to the hardheaded Christians who refused to get onboard with the Renaissance when it showed up.”

“This young man just know they’ll claim to have known all about it before the general public found out or even claim to secretly be a member. …Heh heh. After all, it’s the rose and the cross. Those proud adults will all be smugly confessing their association with a secret organization that reveres the house crest of the very same Johann Valentin Andreae they look down upon. They will claim to have sworn allegiance to this young man!!”

“Bff!? …S-sorry. Unlike you, I have this thing called common sense. I am extremely concerned about the trouble I see brewing in the future. I certainly wasn’t laughing.”

“Don’t try and hide it. Ah ha ha ha!! Those narcissistic teachers act like they’re omniscient despite being as human as the rest of us, so this young man can’t wait to have them bowing their heads to me with looks of utter solemnity! Oh, I already can’t wait until the day we can reveal the truth!!!”

It could hardly be worse.

The corners of Kamijou’s mouth were more than a little stiff.

Was this really acceptable?

Maybe it didn’t matter if it was nor not.

The hidden truth of Johann Valentin Andreae may have been even worse than Aleister Crowley’s.

“Really…?” said Kamijou without thinking.

Rosencreutz(?) refused to turn his way. For a while now, he had been avoiding Kamijou’s eye.

This was the unvarnished truth.

It may have hurt him.

Kamijou took a deep breath and kept a straight face.

“Are you stupid? No one asked you to, but you went right on ahead and created your own original myth with yourself as the leader? I’ve heard most people write some embarrassing things in their youth, but this is ridiculous. Could you not look at yourself objectively and see why you were an outcast?”

“Salt in the wound!? And this old man means the sea salt with pieces bigger than sesame seeds!?”

Kamijou spoke plainly.

This was his chance.

He was so glad he had lived an honest life. He could now take revenge and give this man his just deserts.

“Heh heh heh. Don’t try to pretend you don’t deserve it, Rosencreutz. You did your best to torment me when Kingsford’s giant boobs and butt appeared. That ended peacefully because Kingsford is a wonderful person, but I was this close to receiving a blow powered by an expert’s arm strength, sending my head spinning all the way around. Heh heh, ha ha ha ha! At the hand of Kingsford, the owner of the giant boobs and butt!!”

“Shut up, be quiet, take this: racing swimsuit woman armpiiiiiiit!!!”

That was a curse.

CRC’s cry dragged out the boy’s adolescence.

And hell reacted.

The earth split apart and something emerged. It had no head, arms, or anything below the hips. It looked so much like an indecent silicone doll made with only the necessary parts, but it was enormous. It rivaled a high-voltage transmission tower in size. And hell had even included the racing swimsuit. Was hell particular about such things?

Kamijou Touma seriously screamed as he looked up at the giant something towering above him.

“Ahhhhhh, now that is a niche thing. Boobs and butts are mainstream, but I’d have a hard time calling this sexy. But…if it belongs to a young woman…maybe? If you see it as the one small chink in the young woman’s perfect armor, then maybe an armpit is pretty nice after all!?”

“…”

A short distance away, Anna Kingsford placed a hand on her cheek and remained absolutely silent, but that wasn’t the problem right now.

The fake booklet.

Was that the initial motive?

After spreading the lie everywhere and waiting for enough people to believe it, he would announce it was all a lie to pull the ladder out from under them. And once they were all trapped up on the roof, he could point and laugh at them.

That was all.

The reveal wouldn’t do much damage to Johann and his friend as they stewed inside their little room, but the same could not be said of the important scholars.

This was mischievousness taken to an extreme.

But.

“?”

Kamijou couldn’t believe what he had seen, but then something occurred to him.

Something didn’t add up.

This was something he could only notice because he was looking back from the present time and already knew all the answers.

He gave voice to his confusion.

“But wait… Rosicrucianism was all a lie and it all came to an end when Johann confessed to his enormous prank once the time came, right? Then why do people in later times believe that Rosicrucianism and Rosencreutz were real? Like Anna Sprengel who claimed to be an important figure in the Rosicrucian cabal. Hell, you even said Rosicrucianism is a foundational part of the Golden cabal.”

“It did ❌ come to an end.”

Kingsford’s answer was a simple one.

Generally speaking, that expert did not make mistakes.

“Johann Valentin Andreae abandoned his plan ❌finished.”

That would explain it.

But that called into question the earlier assumptions.

“Johann knew it was all a lie from the beginning, right?”

“🎯.”

“And his prank was meaningless if he didn’t tell everyone it was a lie, right?”

“🎯.”

…Then why did he abandon it unfinished? For hundreds of years, it would seem.

For Johann, the prank lost all meaning if he abandoned it unfinished. Had he lost interest in it? After resisting for two whole years waiting for it to charge up, had he abandoned it all without actually pulling the trigger?

Or.

Could it be…?

“Johann’s greatest error was ❌ accounting for his own perfectionism. While he was a 15-year-old prankster, he was also a student at the University of Tübingen and through his own self-study he had accumulated a great wealth of knowledge in many subjects including theology, alchemy, and astrology. ❌. He lived in the 1600s, the 17th century. The Dark Ages had already ended, a reformation had occurred in a massive system, and as long as they knew Latin, anyone could broaden their horizons past ✝️ and learn about Greek mythology, Egyptian mythology, and so many other aspects of the occult.”

“…”

“❌ wanting his prank to be discovered early, he was very careful as he built up his Rosicrucian mythology from the ground up. ❌ matter how detailed a story is, it can still all fall apart if the author says the fraternity does ❌ exist. …But Johann’s greatest error was letting his great knowledge and perfectionism drive him to create such an intricate story that ❌ one saw it as a mere story.”

The fraternity bearing the crest of Johann’s family was spoken of in the utmost seriousness and even the university professors had bragged about having long known of it or even of being a secret member. It must have a wild experience for the author who knew the truth.

But.

A mere student’s voice had less strength than the voices of influential scholars. Once it became a trend flooding the public, nothing the prankster could say would overcome the wall of majority rule.

No matter the truth of the matter.

So what would happen if he tried to explain what had really happened?

“Are you saying he made his big reveal…and no one believed him?”