Mrs. Hilgaf

The Shadow Trade Association's members failed in their second assault on the noble estate. The defeat dealt a crushing blow to the arrogance they had developed after gaining extraordinary powers. They finally calmed down, their excitement at changing their fates fading as they returned to their usual selves. Some, however, fell back into self-doubt. The slightest setback was enough to make them wallow in self-pity, convinced that even extraordinary powers could not change their good-for-nothing nature.

After that defeat and the sight of so many dead, some lost their nerve. They retreated to the Upper District and threw themselves into a life of drunken indulgence.

Others were like wounded wolves. They hid in the Lower District and began frantically honing their abilities, ready to take revenge once they grew stronger.

The gangs entrenched in the Lower District suffered for it. Those once-swaggering thugs had become prey. Hunted relentlessly by hundreds of Transcendents, they cowered in terror. Some even fled the city for nearby towns and villages.

For a time, every part of Friedenburg City except the heavily guarded Freudenburg District descended into still greater chaos...

At noon, in Friedenburg City's Lower District.

Mrs. Hilgaf hurried along, a happy smile on her face.

She had just visited Freddie and his wife, who lived two blocks away. The middle-aged couple had once run a bakery in the Upper District, but after inadvertently offending a viscount's butler, they had been viciously persecuted and driven down to the Lower District.

Ever since Mrs. Hilgaf gained extraordinary powers through the Shadow Trade Association, opening up a new life for herself and her two daughters, she had become one of Green's Fanatic Believers and begun spreading word of the association, selectively recruiting new members.

Freddie and his wife were among those she had singled out as