Chapter 39

Mission 39 (: 39) is the thirty-ninth chapter of the SPY x FAMILY manga, written and illustrated by Tatsuya Endo. It was released on January 11, 2021.

Summary
In the morning, an alarm at an Eden Academy dorm wakes its residents. Emile Elman and Ewen Egeburg wake up and tell Damian Desmond to do the same, or he will miss morning muster. After morning muster passes, Henry Henderson looks at Damian, who has woken up with dark circles under his eyes. As punishment, Damian is tasked with helping the dorm mother with chores and is forbidden from leaving school grounds until he finishes. Behind the corner, Ewen and Emile watch worriedly.

As Damian helps the dorm mother, his friends come to check on him. Damian, who studied all night, wants to earn more Stella Stars, and Ewen says he is pushing himself too hard. They mention that their dorm tutor will take all the boys to the movies and get roast beef on the way back. Damian is firm on not going and will study instead, hoping for his father’s praise if he works hard to better himself. After being shooed away by the dorm mother, Ewen and Emile purposefully loiter around the halls in an unkempt manner. Henderson sees this and decides to punish them as well, which they accept with excitement.

Damian is surprised to see his friends join him, who say they will help him so they all can go to the movies. Damian tells them to go ahead without him, but they stay to help him do the chores anyways. Ewen adds that they can pretend to be Imperial Scholars, wrapping a sheet around himself like a cloak. While the boys play around, Henderson watches from the inside and thinks about how there is nothing more elegant than the precious elegance of youthful friendship.

While they play, Damian looks at the sky in a daze. Mr. Green, the school custos, jokes that Damian has the face of someone who would rather be at a picnic, which an embarrassed Damian denies. Henderson decides to give the boys a new punishment for their tomfoolery while doing chores: going on a field research trip with Mr. Green.

Mr. Green takes the now frantic boys on a fast-paced canoe ride, planning to take them to a lake for a picnic. As Damian spots an approaching “waterfall,” he accidentally falls off the canoe. When he cries for help, Ewen and Emile jump after him, only to end up in the same situation. They decide to let Damian survive to live on their dreams, which moves him. Green interrupts, revealing that the water is shallow, and embarrasses the boys.

After starting a warm fire on land, Green tells them to catch some fish for dinner. With Green’s help, the friends prepare to fish. They look for bait and turn over a rock to find some earthworms, which frighten Damian. After Ewen and Emile chase Damian around with worms, they start fishing and successfully catch fish for each of them. As they enjoy their hard-earned meal, Green tells Damian that it is okay to enjoy oneself every now and then. After eating, he takes the boys to “Stella Lake,” which Damian is excited to see.

Upon reaching their destination, the boys are amazed by the lake, where the stars reflect on its surface and look like they can be reached, hence the name Stella Lake. Damian is shocked there are no Stellas but denies that the trip was wasted. He, Ewen, and Emile lie down on the ground and look at the stars. While taking in the sight, Emile says the stars look like sugar sprinkled on the sky, which makes Damian burst into laughter. Green says they should be heading back and reminds them to write out a proper field report.

After returning to the dorm, Green sees Henderson with the reports in hand. Henderson thanks Green and asks if he was able to “let the boys loose,” which he confirms. While Henderson reviews the reports, he says Damian's needs some work, noting how brief it is.

Trivia

 * During their walk to Stella Lake, Professor Green brought up the defection of Southern Ostanians to Westalis through a third country. A reference to how East German defectors got around the Inner German border to reach West Germany.