Rich rewards! Official status at last! (Monthly votes, please)

The four of them entered the Special Operations Team's headquarters with Evan in the lead, only to find the outer waiting room packed.

Judging by their clothes, the crowd included workers, tailors, and housewives, men and women of all ages.

The workers wore coarse overalls stained with grease, the tailors still had needles and thread pinned to their clothes, and the housewives wrapped themselves in old shawls washed almost white.

But now, almost all of them looked pale, as though something had terrified them. They hunched their shoulders, their eyes still full of lingering fear.

Evan could faintly hear them whispering among themselves.

"Did you see those monsters with stitches all over their faces too?"

"They could turn into wind! I saw them rush into the factory and drink the workers' blood!"

"Ha! Vampires are nothing. What I saw was terrifying!"

"They were rotting all over. I watched them drag living people into the sewers!"

"Healing Heavenly Father above, what has been happening lately?! First the plague, now monsters!"

Receiving them was Gray's deputy from before, the Apprentice Witch Peg.

By now, Peg had grown quite proficient at using soul-soothing abilities on these people.

She then led them in groups to the rooms farther down the adjoining corridor.

The Demon and Spirit Medium from before were already waiting there.

Evan and his companions nodded to the three of them, then followed the woman at the reception desk straight to Vic's office.

Vic was clearly busy too. The two black upright telephones in his office rang incessantly.

He answered one call after another, barely taking a receiver away from his ear.

"You've come at just the right time!"

At the sight of them, Vic forgot his usual inscrutable air and looked as though he had spotted his saviors.

He spoke