Chapter 92

With term finals approaching, Becky warns Anya that the results decide class placements for the second term, meaning bad grades would strand her away from her friends and sink Plan B. Anya admits her mind-reading cheat has stopped working; too many classmates' thoughts drown out her target, who often solves problems faster than she can follow. She resolves to earn her answers honestly.

Loid shares the anxiety. Since the Daybreak break-in prompted Eden to harden its security, swapping Anya's answer sheets is off the table. He pins his hopes on Classical Language, her one strong subject, dreaming of a Stella Star before a glance at Anya playing with her snot drags him back to earth. His attempts at tutoring flounder, and calling Yuri again is too risky given the man's suspicion of him. The Authens then knock, inviting the family over for Barbara's cookies. Loid initially resists interrupting study time but accepts, partly to vet the new neighbors.

Over cookies, Loid steers the talk to Sigmund's book collection and learns he was a neurology professor who rehabilitated wounded soldiers in Covenia and dabbled in cultural anthropology. His prior background check already suggested the man was harmless. When Classical Language comes up, Sigmund volunteers to tutor Anya, opening with a question about her favorite book and producing the first volume of Spy Wars as their text. Loid privately writes the approach off, having failed with it himself, but Sigmund has Anya recite a Bondman line in the old language and builds the grammar from there, insisting that a child should find joy in study. Watching him, Loid confronts how differently he was raised, having treated knowledge purely as a survival tool.

Anya thrives, promising to visit daily and telling Sigmund her goal is world peace, an answer that earns her a hug and his declaration that children are the nation's greatest treasure. She studies hard all week, shows up the day before exams with marker-drawn stubble to look battle-hardened, and performs well on practice tests. After Henry Henderson questions the stubble, the finals commence, and five days later the whole first year crowds the quad where the results are posted.

Anya abandons telepathic cheating for genuine study after it proves unreliable during exams.

Eden's post-Daybreak security upgrade eliminates Loid's ability to alter test answers.

Sigmund Authen's background as a neurology professor and rehabilitator of wounded soldiers is revealed, and he becomes Anya's Classical Language tutor using Spy Wars as the textbook.

Anya sits her term finals; the grades go up five days later.

A 21-page Volume 13 chapter in the Term Finals Arc, released December 25, 2023, with a large ensemble of Eden first-years on the cover.

Loid's recollections tie back to earlier chapters: Anya's aptitude for Classical Language surfaced in Chapter 42, and his failed attempt to teach her through a homemade Spy Wars episode occurred in Short Mission 9.