Chapter 8

Eden Academy opens with a formal assembly for the 228 incoming students and their families. Listening to the headmaster's welcome, Loid privately admits that admission was merely step one of Operation Strix, and that the Handler's blueprint, grooming Anya into an Imperial Scholar by collecting eight Stella Stars, strikes him as hopeless. Anya's telepathy catches the thought and leaves her rattled. Loid has engineered a backup: Anya is placed in the same class as Damian Desmond, Donovan Desmond's second son. Under this fallback, dubbed the Friendship Scheme, a bond between the two children could earn Anya an invitation to the Desmond home and put Loid within reach of his target.

During roll call Anya meets Becky Blackbell, whose father heads a major defense manufacturer, while Loid marvels at how many classmates come from powerful families. Housemaster Henry Henderson, still employed despite the interview fiasco, leads the first-years on a tour that includes the private dining hall reserved for Imperial Scholars, complete with warnings about Tonitrus Bolts for misbehavior. Damian soaks up flattery from classmates drawn to his father's position atop the National Unity Party, then quizzes Anya about her own father. Her answer, that he is a "feelings doctor," gets her dismissed as a nobody, and when she asks to visit Damian's house his hangers-on pile on the insults.

Remembering Yor's advice that a calm smile defuses conflict better than an angry fist, Anya answers the mockery with a grin that comes out looking insufferably smug. Damian is enraged, Becky is impressed, and the taunting escalates until Damian pledges to drive Anya out of the school entirely. Anya finally checks that no teacher is watching and decks him, launching him into a trash bin. Cornered by Henderson, she improvises that she was defending Becky after Damian stomped on her foot, a lie that reduces Becky to grateful tears and strikes Henderson as oddly elegant. The day ends with Henderson issuing Anya a single Tonitrus Bolt, softened from the usual three, while Loid despairs that both of his plans lie in ruins as the commemorative photo captures three miserable faces.

Loid discards the Handler's Stella Star strategy as unworkable and formulates the Friendship Scheme, betting on Anya befriending Damian to open a path to Donovan Desmond. Anya is sorted into Cecile Hall under Henry Henderson alongside both Damian and Becky Blackbell, who becomes her first ally.

Provoked past her limit during the campus tour, Anya punches Damian in the face. Her cover story about protecting Becky wins her a friend and spares her the full penalty, but she still receives one Tonitrus Bolt on day one, and Damian now resents her, leaving Operation Strix doubly damaged.

Four classmates debut in the flesh here: Becky Blackbell, Ewen Egeburg, Emile Elman, and Damian Desmond himself. Early digital versions had the headmaster cite 208 accepted students; the figure becomes 228 from the Volume 2 printing onward. The volume release also swaps the katakana spelling of Becky's "anata" for hiragana. The English edition has Loid identify a parent as a State Security Service leader, where the Japanese text names only a senior figure from the Ministry of Security.