Chapter 124

Eden Academy wakes to scandal when copies of an article appear across campus charging Henry Henderson with selling test questions to a student's guardian, backed by a damning photograph and signed only by an anonymous journalist invoking justice. Henry rejects the accusation outright, but the situation worsens when the headmaster asks after the unprinted elementary midterm and the papers are found missing from Henry's personal safe. A young teacher pointedly dredges up Henry's arrest from his early career, and while the staff opens a formal investigation, his classes are handed to substitutes.

Gossip races through the student body despite containment efforts. Cecile Hall's first-years refuse to believe the charges, and Bill Watkins brings Wald Hall students to their side, recalling how Henry shielded them during the bus hijacking. Anya rips one of the posted articles off a bulletin board, sparking her friends to do likewise, then baffles everyone by announcing she is keeping hers as a keepsake. At home, Loid tells her the article proves nothing on its own, though privately his analysis keeps finding the allegation more credible, and he worries a genuine scandal would draw Ministry of Education and SSS scrutiny down on the school. Anya resolves to settle the question by reading Henry's mind directly.

The next day brings the announcement that Henry is resigning for personal reasons. Thomas Austin and other teachers object that the investigation remains unfinished, but Henry holds firm, framing the mess as his own oversight and insisting a clean exit is best. Donna Schlag confronts him outside the dorm, startled to hear him confess simple exhaustion, and stamps him with a Tonitrus Bolt for cowardice, sloth, and surrendering the truth, conduct she brands inelegant. Saying goodbye to his tearful students, Henry assures them the charges are false, and his inner thoughts, which Anya overhears, confirm his innocence along with his private regret. As Martha arrives to drive him to the Ministry of Education, Connie recognizes her own holy water mixture's scent on the young accusing teacher: he is the schoolhouse ghost. Anya then hears the man congratulating himself on ousting Henry with a single article, and she vows to expose him.

An anonymous article accuses Henry of trading test questions for bribes, and the midterm papers vanish from his safe, triggering an investigation.

Students across houses rally behind Henry, with Anya leading the tearing down of the posted accusations.

Henry announces his resignation, earning a Tonitrus Bolt from Donna Schlag for giving up on the truth.

Through telepathy, Anya verifies Henry's innocence and identifies the young teacher as both the schoolhouse ghost and the true culprit behind the frame-up.

Mr. Viehmann makes his first physical appearance in this chapter; Loid had previously posed as him back in Chapter 27 while infiltrating the school after the first midterms.

Henry's arrest early in his teaching career, used against him here, calls back to established series history. To promote the chapter, Tatsuya Endo broke from his usual illustration and posted a short animation on Twitter instead.