"....." "....." "....."

The two generals and YuJu chose to keep silent sensing the rising pressure in the air, one didn't need to know Aminta to realize he'd just offended the iron fist commander by reporting the existence of an enemy within her own ranks

"Who"

It didn't take long for her to ask in an ordering tone after sorting the potential moles through her mind and readying herself for an answer she might not like

YuJu didn't bother beating around the bush this time and ratted out the person

"Well it's none other than that blood obsessed general of yours"

"....?"

Aminta, for the first time in many years, allowed an expression of confusion to cover her face, the initial expectations blown away at the mention of a general

Confusion didn't last for long though since she started to doubt his words before wiping any expression off her face and speaking in a disappointed tone

"Is that an assumption of yours? If you have no proof then I'll have to correct your thoughts about Gremm, he might be rash and short-fused but is a loyal and brave subject of mine, I will not tolerate any baseless accusations toward him"

Toward the end her tone came off as both firm and scolding, however much she tolerated his actions it didn't give him the right to slander her own generals whom she handpicked and groomed for decades, roots be they or not

"Oh you seem to have misunderstood, I didn't mean the hairy cat, instead I was referring to that walking water tank"

He paused for a bit

"Basu"

He further added to avoid any further misunderstandings

A frown found its way to the other three hearing the name, Aminta seemed displeased even but Latvia beat her to the scolding

"Listen here you!"

She fumed

"I don't know what games your playing at but watch your words around any of the generals, each of us has contributed to Hortus in ways you can't imagine for many many decades, if you think some little scheme can drag any of them down into a rotten traitor then you'd find no one but yourself behind bars"

"Hehehe"

Shortly after her warning he chuckled lightly earning him a hard glare from her and disapproving looks from the other tow

"Apologies for the untimely laugh, can't blame me though for you entertained me far too much"

Seeing as no one bothered to ask why he continued explaining on his own

"I understand the reason your lashing out to defend him, after all he'd saved your life after the Emerald Luster breakout, how scary it was, a disease which could spread through pollen and infect any plant based creatures turning their bodies into emerald within mere days"

His eyes turned nostalgic, as if he was reminiscing memories of such incident, that is until he broke into another chuckle

"Hehe, how ironic though, being saved by the very same person who spread the disease, I bet you couldn't relate the initial spread o-" "That's enough friend"

Before he revealed the most crucial part Verbrand interjected

"I see how you're trying to plant seeds of doubts in our hearts, yes the initial spread had come from the water source and yes Basu was the one who managed such sources but that doesn't mean he spread it himself, now if you have no definite evidence and merely doubts and random connections then please leave"

Unfriendly as they were YuJu still chose to stay

"Well, I was hoping you'd help with that"

"Helping you incriminate one of ours?"

"Expose should be the word, unless you'd rather keep a hostile within than assist a frenemy"

There seemed to be a short bout of silence before he agreed, only if it sounded reasonable though

"Well it isn't anything extreme, all I want is for Latvia to report her findings of me being bedridden, announce to the others that I will be out of commission for a few months"

"And how does that help?"

"You'll find out when I come back, at that point things will be self explanatory"

Verbrand turned to Aminta instead of answering, hoping to get her opinion on the final say

She in turn looked at YuJu for a little while before agreeing to the request, not without a last comment however

"Keep in mind that I do not believe you, as trustworthy as you should be, for my generals have been with me far too long for a new arrival from the supposed past to break our trust so easily"

"That's good, if you ostracised him I wouldn't find it easy to pull through with my plans"

As always he didn't seem much affected by their attitude, in fact it almost always felt like he was steering their thoughts, something very unpleasant, alas they were helpless about it

Now that they were done talking he bid them farewell and proceeded to open up the emergency exit, his knowledge of it or its activation requirement didn't surprise them, he already knew how to open it from the outside and many secrets in general, what concerned them more was if he really was on their side and if not whos side was he on…..

"Oh! Almost forgot"

Interrupting their thoughts he poked his head from the exit

"Send someone to secretly teach Ellis the common language here, she's not accustomed to it yet"

With that he disappeared from sight as the hole in the wall sealed itself back up returning to its normal appearance

"An annoying fellow isn't he"

"Indeed so"

The two generals complained while Aminta rested the thought filled head on her hand, once more falling into silent debate