"Well... that was quick, but it's for the best." Gisle muttered.

"How did you do that...?" Agnes was puzzled.

Osvald's movements seemed simple, but Agnes could not counteract him.

"Hmm? I just knew how you would act. You have pretty good technique, but you're very predictable. There's no point in quick strikes if they don't reach the target."

"More."

"Hmm?"

"I want to try again." Agnes said seriously.

Osvald shrugged, "Suit yourself, but I have one condition."

Agnes looked at him, puzzled.

"If you can't throw a single punch at me, you become my apprentice. I'm curious to see what kind of fighter you'll turn out to be."

"But... I'm not sure..."

"Go for it." Gisle suddenly said, "Would you miss such a chance? Go for it."

"Got it."

"Fine, then, I'll start this time!"

Osvald rushed forward and attacked. Agnes reacted, stepped to the side, and struck back, but Osvald simply reflected her blow with the back of his palm.

'What?' Agnes inwardly muttered.

'I haven't lost yet!' Agnes internally exclaimed and kicked.

Osvald blocked the blow with his hand and looked slyly at Agnes. She flinched and backed away, but suddenly Osvald appeared beside her. He put his foot slightly forward, Agnes stumbled and fell.

'Surely this is Agnes...?' Teresa asked herself.

The others were just as surprised. They were used to Agnes being very strong, one of the most capable in Last Light, but against Osvald, she was like a child.

"Okay, that's enough. We all have a lot of work to do. Wain, let's go." Gisle waved his hand.

"Sure." Wain nodded.

"When do we start training?" Agnes asked as she rose to her feet.

"Whenever you want. We can start right now, as long as these two are talking. Your leader turned out to be pretty smart."

"Hmm? Why?"

"Because he understands perfectly well that with me, you'll be many times stronger! Haven't you figured that out yet?" Osvald smiled.

...

Wain came into Gisle's study. Little had changed here, there was a stack of papers on the desk, a large comfortable chair, and a closet with everything he needed.

"Would you like a drink?"

"I wouldn't say no, but do you drink?" Wain wondered.

"Well... Luckily I've had less work lately. The situation has normalized, and now I can relax a little. I don't usually drink, but when I tried this wine, I couldn't help myself." Gisle pulled a bottle of red wine out of the cabinet.

"It's a gift from Delia, I didn't know Vampires liked the wine so much, but they seem to have infected me with it." Gisle placed two glasses on the table.

"By the way, how are things going with Vampires and Plants? Is it going well?"

"Yeah, it's actually even better than I thought it would be. Though you have Elsa to thank more for that than me. She's a genius administrator. Can you imagine that the tunnels are practically done? We've started trading, all that's left to take care of is protection, and the perfect paths are ready. That goes for both Vampires and Plants." Gisle poured wine into glasses.

A pleasant, fruity aroma emanated from the wine. Wain and Gisle enjoyed the aroma for a while, then simultaneously took a sip.

"It's great. I thought Vlad's wine was the best, but I guess I was wrong." Wain muttered as he shook his wine glass.

"Okay, let's cut to the chase. Where did you find these walking cats?"

"In a random area, as far as I know, they got there during the worlds merge."

"I see, that was unexpected, but they're sure to find something to do here. Even though we have allies, we have one problem that I don't know how to solve..." Gisle muttered.

"What is it?"

"The thing is..." Gisle drained his glass of wine, "That there's too fucking few of us."

"Hmm?"

"We're strong. As I've figured out, with many souls, the humans surpass the other races, but unlike them, we only have four cities and one island. There are only a few tens of thousands of us, and two or three thousand can fight at best, and that's me not taking into account which Chronicle most of them are in."

"I agree, that's a problem..."

"Of course, the Vampires aren't that many either, there are fewer than us, but that's only because it's one city we cooperate with, though even so, unlike us, they are all fighters." Gisle said regretfully.

"Gisle, I want to tell you something." Wain filled his glass with wine, "I was recently in Nord, it's Demon City, and there I met this amazing girl. Her name is Alice, and she's a human."

"What? How is that possible...? Aren't we the only ones?"

"Apparently not, or there's something we don't know about. Either way, it's an opportunity not to be missed, don't you think?" Wain muttered as he looked at his glass of wine.

Sometimes later, Gisle said, "You're right, but as I understand it, you don't know where other people are excluding her or how many, is that right?"

"Yeah."

Gisle nodded, "I'd like to go looking, but it's not possible at the moment. We don't have as many resources or capabilities, it's too dangerous. In the end, if it doesn't work out, we'll just have to find new allies and continue to build up our overall strength."

Gisle understood that they needed to find their kin. It was the only way to increase their numbers. Gisle couldn't wait until children were born and raised, they didn't have that much time, but he had to act rationally.

"If I find out where the humans are, will you go after them?"

"Hmm? I didn't know you cared about such things. Are you suddenly a philanthropist?"historical

"No, I just might be able to find them. I'm going with Alice to her house soon. That's probably where I'll find clues about the other humans who came into this world with us."

"Fine. Then I'll do my best." Gisle smiled slyly.