Chapter 123 Part 2

Part 2 opens with the mystery shoe: Connie bats it away with her ritual wand and flees, while Anya snags it in her net, leaving the boys speechless. To reach the fourth floor, the group must cross the whole third floor, and along the way Arnold offers a grimmer take on the schoolhouse legend, suggesting the so-called Devil Ritual was really a cover phrase for Great War experiments performed on underachieving Eden students.

Right then a voice only Anya can hear snarls at the children to stay away, and an enormous shadow rushes past the window. Terror scatters the group, and the flood of their panicked minds knocks Anya out cold. Damian spots a figure lurking in the darkness but chooses to carry Anya on his back while Connie pelts the shape with exorcism supplies. On the way out they run headlong into Bill Watkins, trailed by a pair of Wald Hall students, all drawn by the same Imperial Scholar rumor. Bill complains that a ghost made off with his shoe, and it proves to be the very one the group captured.

Once everyone is clear of the building, Damian puffs himself up and declares his path to Imperial Scholarhood secured, while Anya laments the Stella Stars they might have earned by actually bagging a ghost. He then notices Anya is still on his back and drops her in a fluster. That night, every child but Anya is too frightened to bathe or visit the bathroom alone, and the next morning Anya, Damian, Emile, and Ewen are all nursing colds. Damian warns Anya to keep the expedition quiet lest they earn Tonitrus Bolts, just before a panicked Connie arrives with word that Henry Henderson may be forced out of Eden.

Arnold relays a rumor recasting the Devil Ritual as wartime human experimentation on underperforming Eden students.

Anya receives a hostile telepathic warning inside the schoolhouse, and a shadowy figure chases the children off. Damian carries the collapsed Anya out himself.

The captured shoe is matched to Bill Watkins, who blames its theft on a ghost.

Connie delivers the cliffhanger news that Henry Henderson faces dismissal from Eden Academy.

This part arrived on September 29, 2025, two weeks after Part 1, with both halves collected as a single chapter in Volume 17.

Connie's arsenal references Shinto practice: her wand is a gohei and her straw doll is a wara ningyo, the classic Japanese curse doll.

The lurking figure and telepathic voice are early threads of the Eden Scandal storyline rather than genuine hauntings.