Murdoch Swan

A thick walrus mustache dominates Murdoch's face, sitting beneath small eyebrows and a receding head of black hair. Stout and middle-aged at 47, he dresses in a striped tie and a navy blue suit, which the anime recolors dark brown; during the Eden scandal his tie carries a dalc-symbol pattern.

Murdoch treats Eden Academy as personal property. As the former headmaster's only son, he brandishes his father's lingering influence to bully critics, threatening Henry Henderson the moment his conduct is questioned and excusing every abuse of his position. The divorce that cost him custody of his daughter left him despising families that look happy, and the admissions interviews become his hunting ground: he picks at the Forgers' marriage, humiliates Yor over her cooking, and savors Anya's tears after demanding she choose between her two mothers. Even a near-punch from Loid only briefly cows him before the insults resume.

Greed drives him as much as spite. Grumbling that an instructor's wages insult a man surrounded daily by elite wealth, he runs an illegal admissions racket, waves off hefty bribes as pocket change, and engineers Henry's removal through fabricated scandal articles, bought-off security staff, and forged photographs commissioned from a professional. He underestimates everyone, children included: when Anya, Damian, and Becky obtain proof of his crimes, he first offers them unlimited Stella Stars for their silence, then orders his subordinates to deal with them by force. Confronted with genuine authority, whether Henry's fist or Donna Schlag's judgment, the bravado collapses into pleading and opportunism, and his poor example filters down to Cline Hall students whose conduct mirrors his own lack of ethics.

Murdoch grew up as the sole son of Eden's headmaster and went on to teach economics there while running Dormitory 2, Cline Hall, as housemaster. One month before the academy's admissions interviews, his wife divorced him and took sole charge of their daughter, souring him just in time to sit across from applicant families. His provocations during the Forger interview end with Loid smashing the interview table and Henry, refusing to tolerate him further, knocking him out with a single blow; Henry keeps his job regardless and is even made housemaster of the incoming first-years, to Murdoch's irritation.

Months later, wanting Henry gone so the admissions scheme can run unopposed, Murdoch anonymously accuses him of taking bribes and hires a forger to manufacture photographic evidence. Anya, Damian, and Becky unravel the plot, and when bribery and threats both fail, Donna Schlag uncovers the operation herself, rejects his offer of a cut, condemns the nepotism that carried his career, and metes out her own punishment, striking him with Tonitrus Bolts ahead of his arrest.