Chapter 127 Part 2

With the plot broken, authorities take Swan and roughly a dozen collaborators into custody. Newspapers seize on the exposed admissions racket, and Eden Academy responds by promising a full external probe to root out corruption and repair its name. At SSS headquarters, Swan tells his interrogator he acted out of financial desperation and bitterness toward pupils who flaunted their wealth. The officers have their own concerns: powerful Eden alumni want the affair buried quickly, the scheme's printing press looks like Westalian contraband smuggled through the black market, and Yuri points out that whoever alerted the drivers in the earlier bus hijacking was never identified, all of it forming a troubling pattern around the school.

Eden itself weathers public anger, including vandalism that rattles students and staff alike. The headmaster offers Henry a formal apology, absolves him completely, and asks for his help steering the coming reforms, while Henry privately grasps that Swan's operation ran far deeper than one forged accusation. His gratitude goes to the children who dug up the truth.

A ceremony follows, awarding Stella Stars to Anya, Becky, Connie, Damian, Emile, Ewen, and Bill for defending their teacher and dragging the corruption into the light. Classmates from Cecile Hall offer thanks, pupils from the other classes offer apologies for having doubted Henry, and when Becky bristles at forgiving them so easily, Mr. Green urges everyone to weigh what they choose to believe. Donna then delivers the other half of justice: Rain warning stickers for Damian and Emile in place of Tonitrus Bolts, an explanation that the trespassing rules exist for the children's safety, and a week of volunteer work for the whole group. During that assignment they run into George, who quietly notes that his part in the rescue went unrecognized. A mortified Donna apologizes and presents him with both marks at once, a Stella Star paired with a Rain sticker, and he receives them happily.

Swan and his co-conspirators are arrested, and Eden announces an external investigation into its corruption.

The SSS interrogation surfaces loose threads: a suspected Westalis black-market printing press, alumni pressure for a quick resolution, and the unidentified bus hijacking informant.

Henry is exonerated by the headmaster and returns to teaching Cecile Hall.

Stella Stars go to the seven students who saved Henry, with George honored afterward, while Donna issues Rain stickers and volunteer labor as measured punishment for the trespassing.

Part 2 was published on January 5, 2026. The awards leave Anya and Damian with four Stella Stars apiece, Bill with three, Becky with two, and first Stellas for Connie, Ewen, Emile, and George.

The Rain sticker system appears here as a lighter tier of demerit below the Tonitrus Bolt, with Donna warning that accumulated umbrella marks convert into a Bolt. One page's art was touched up for Volume 17, filling in Connie's socks with their usual black.