Chapter 127

Donna Schlag finishes sweeping the fourth floor, stamping Tonitrus Bolts on all of Swan's followers. A window slides open and two photographs skid across the floor to Anya, laying bare how the incriminating image was composited: one frame shows Henry innocently inspecting a tea-leaf sale, the other the staged handoff. The prints come from Loid, who obtained them from the forger and now watches from the rooftop, concluding that Swan's circle purchased the fake scandal. Donna holds off Swan's men so the children can carry the proof to Henry, then coldly rejects Swan's offer of a promotion, reminding him his own post came through nepotism and promising to teach him the fate that folktales reserve for the greedy.

Damian phones Jeeves, and a helicopter delivers Anya, Becky, and Damian by parachute to the Ministry of Education just as Henry arrives with Martha to hand in his papers. Even faced with proof of his innocence, Henry claims he no longer deserves the classroom, until Becky and Damian call the retreat inelegant and credit him as their inspiration, and Martha invokes his conviction that education is the answer to war. Remembering Donovan Desmond once sneering at faith in others, Henry reverses course and vows to teach his students through the end of their elementary years. The moment sours comically when staff reveal the resignation already went through mid-conversation, forcing a long bureaucratic slog to undo it.

In the aftermath, Swan and around a dozen accomplices are arrested, the press feasts on the backroom-deals story, and Eden announces an outside investigation. Under SSS interrogation, Swan pleads poverty and resentment of his wealthy students; the officers, pressed by influential alumni for a fast resolution, puzzle over the scheme's printing press, suspected to be Westalian black-market contraband, while Yuri flags the still-unidentified informant from the bus hijacking as part of a worrying pattern around the school. The headmaster formally clears and apologizes to Henry, enlisting him in the school's reform. A Stella ceremony honors Anya, Becky, Connie, Damian, Emile, Ewen, and Bill, though Donna balances the awards with Rain warning stickers for Damian and Emile, a week of volunteer labor for the group, and a reminder that the rules they broke exist to keep them alive. During that labor the children realize they forgot George's contribution entirely, and Donna makes amends by granting him a Stella Star together with a Rain sticker of his own.

Loid anonymously supplies the original photographs proving the bribery image was a composite, and Donna covers the children's escape with the evidence.

A helicopter drop at the Ministry of Education lets Anya, Becky, and Damian intercept Henry, who withdraws his resignation and recommits to teaching.

Swan and his co-conspirators are arrested, while the SSS notes the black-market printing press and unresolved bus hijacking tipster as signs of deeper trouble around Eden.

Seven students receive Stella Stars at a ceremony, followed by George after his help is belatedly remembered, and Donna disciplines the group for trespassing.

The chapter arrived in two installments, on December 22, 2025 and January 5, 2026. After the ceremony, Anya and Damian each stand at four Stella Stars, Bill at three, and Becky at two, while Connie, Ewen, Emile, and George all earn their first.

The SSS scenes seed future plotlines, tying the Westalis printing press and the bus hijacking informant into a broader pattern of suspicious activity around the academy. In the Volume 17 printing, Connie's socks are colored black on one Part 2 page where the digital release left them blank.