Ivan read for over an hour before he had roughly finished the two-finger-thick booklet.
The entire book was divided into three parts.
The first section consisted of a summary of his previous speeches, with each sentence split into separate pages with at least a thousand words annotated at the bottom.
Ivan's skin crawled and he felt awkward just looking at her. Even the reading comprehension he had done in his previous life had not been so exaggerated… It was like a magical version of the Bible or an analect.
The second part is about his legendary life in recent years.
However, there is a certain deification in this part of the speech, so much so that even Ivan could not recognize the one who was born with knowledge, wisdom, and great power, the one who will lead the wizards to a new era, Sir Ivan-Harrs, was referring to himself…
It's too much …
The third and final section was based on his theory of future changes in the wizarding world, which Ivan considered slightly more normal.
The book specifically states that in order to liberate wizarding productivity, one must first change old ideas, freeing wizards from their pointless and boring work and committing them to more meaningful magical research…
"Greason?!" Ivan muttered to himself, his head aching as he flipped to the last page and slammed the New Age Manifesto together.
Were these people so good at causing trouble?
He had come to Paris to hide in a safe house, and he wasn't going to let him go…
Yvonne would have dragged the wizard, Gleason, over to teach him a lesson if she could, lest he try to come up with something new to take credit for.
Irritated, Ivan waited for her to calm down before turning back to the book, unsure how to proceed.
Despite her prejudices, Ivan had to admit that the New Age Declaration was a progressive book that summed up some of his ideas very well.
The content is simple, easy to understand, and thought-provoking, presenting the shortcomings and dilemmas of the wizarding world to the reader as if they were spinning a cocoon.
Even Ivan was greatly benefitted from reading the book, and from time to time he would express a feeling of "I didn't know I had such foresight."
As for the intentional or unintentional deification of the second part of the legend, Ivan thought about it for a moment and understood the implications.
Apparently, Gleason thought he wanted to engage in a cult of personality.
Ivan had read history books and knew, of course, that in some extreme cases, propaganda in this way could greatly improve a team's cohesion in a short period of time, fostering a fanatical and highly loyal following.
However, history has also proven that individualism is a double-edged sword, and almost every extreme example Ivan can think of has gone wrong!
The reason is simple. Followers are generally fanatical about the idea that "God" is perfect and incapable of error, resulting in "God" having absolute authority and no one daring to disagree with him.
Unfortunately, all those who were elevated to divinity and thus embraced by the masses were ultimately humans…
It is impossible for an individual to never make a mistake and always make the right choice in everything!
It is easy for the blind followers of a large number of supporters to magnify such misdeeds indefinitely and eventually become difficult to deal with.
Ivan reached over and took a piece of parchment from the side. He held the quill in his hand but hesitated for a long time.
His original plan had been to write a scathing letter berating Gleason for taking matters into his own hands so that he would restrain himself and burn or seal the book.
This was because he would definitely feel terrible in the future if he distributed one to every wizard in Knockturn Alley.
Being deified was not a good thing. It meant that one had to be careful with their words and actions and maintain their image.
When they first returned to Knockturn Alley, Ivan pretended to be strong and fierce in order to keep the Dark Wizards under control. However, he could not take it for a week and was forced to take refuge in this safe house.
If he were to pretend for a few years or even a decade, he would go crazy!
In addition, Ivan was worried that the New Age Manifesto would make him too powerful, and that if he accidentally let it slip, it would cause his faith to crumble.
Wizards who realised they were being lied to were likely to do something insane.
This was why Ivan felt that the New Age Manifesto needed to be sealed, as it was too easy to get into trouble.
It would be even worse if word got out on a large scale and attracted the attention of the Ministry of Magic.
From his many contacts with Fudge, he had learned that the Minister for Magic was a solid conservative with a policy of stability. He would not support such a radical idea, and might even resist pursuing it.
It was bound to be traced back to him, as he was the centerpiece of the New Age Declaration, which clearly contained his name.
Of course, at his age and with his reputation in the wizarding world, publishing such a radical reformist and self-deificationist book was out of line, and it was not explicitly illegal. Fudge could not do anything to him, and at most forbade the publication of the book.
However, if the fact that he kept a large number of Dark Wizards in Knockturn Alley and trained them day and night to take down the Wizarding Market were to be revealed, it would be a different story!
Fudge would never allow a wizarding army to exist that could threaten the Ministry of Magic!
The Minister for Magic might even consider him to be the next Lord Voldemort, as this gathering of followers and preaching of ideas and individualistic veneration was very similar to what Lord Voldemort did when he rose to power.
So one false move and Azkaban would be his final resting place…
As for disbanding his fellow wizards and making overtures to the Ministry to prove himself harmless?
Ivan didn't even think about it. Only a fool would do that!
The Ministry of Magic has been shown to be unreliable many times in the original timeline.
In the turbulent days of Lord Voldemort's return and Dumbledore's near-death, Fudge would be lucky to keep things under control.
He had only two options for self-preservation.
They could either abandon all their friends and leave the British wizarding world in disgrace and find a place to hide, or they could try to increase their own strength as much as possible. If they could not win a one-on-one fight, they would gang up on them. At the very least, they would not be bullied by Lord Voldemort after he revived…
The third option, surrender, does not exist, and Ivan is well aware that Voldemort's memory of the two-shot feud must be deeply ingrained, which is why he actively sought to destroy Horcruxes…