Chapter 37

Eden Academy hosts its semi-annual gathering of Imperial Scholars, their families, and select alumni, effectively a summit of Ostania's ruling class watched over by agents and soldiers. Disguised as a professor, Twilight studies the Tower of Wisdom and rules out both a forced entry and an approach in disguise; Operation Strix demands repeated contact with Donovan Desmond, so any move must happen as Loid Forger, outside the venue itself.

Damian, meanwhile, has asked his brother Demetrius to carry a message to their father requesting a meeting in the courtyard by Library 2 once the event wraps up. Anya plucks the plan from his head and tails him, hoping to reach Donovan on her own, while Twilight shadows the boys for reasons of his own.

Near the tower, talk of his father's stature makes Damian freeze, and he moves to cancel, rationalizing that so important a man has no time for someone like him. Anya blocks his retreat, taunts him for being scared, then nearly exposes her telepathy before covering with a claim that she peeked at his 50-point test. She admits her own fear, confessing a 17-point score and her uncertainty over whether Loid even likes her, but declares that loving her father gives her the courage to face him with the truth. The rambling speech baffles everyone present, yet Damian turns on his heel and heads for the courtyard after all.

While Becky has Martha carry the sleeping Anya home, Twilight plants a cheap handmade copy of Anya's sheep keychain where the boys will find it. Once the mixer ends he approaches the group as Loid, asks after the lost charm, and drops to his knees to apologize for Anya striking Damian at orientation. Donovan arrives at that exact moment to meet his son, and when the bodyguards move to clear Loid out, Donovan permits him to speak. Loid apologizes for his daughter and, smiling, introduces himself to the man Operation Strix exists to reach.

Twilight concludes that infiltrating the Tower of Wisdom is impractical and elects to engineer contact with Donovan under the Loid Forger identity.

Damian nearly abandons the meeting he arranged through Demetrius, but Anya's fumbling encouragement pushes him to see it through.

Using a duplicated keychain as his pretext, Loid secures a direct introduction to Donovan Desmond at last, the opening breakthrough of Operation Strix.

Mission 37 runs 29 pages in Volume 6, adapts into Episode 25, and carries Loid on the cover. Donovan Desmond makes his debut in this chapter.

The Japanese edition prints Demetrius's full name here for the first time, something the English release did much earlier in Chapter 25, and in the original Japanese Damian addresses his brother as aniki rather than by name. One teenaged female Imperial Scholar wears black trousers rather than the knee socks other girls have; the anime recolors them white.