The next few days were rather quiet, too quiet, with YuJu being unable to take a step unless his enemies made theirs first the situation was in a stalemate

This situation lasted until the maid was called in by Gremm with a secret transmission, which he informed Aminta and the two generals about as soon as it came, from now on the three needed to be in on every move this traitor would make, otherwise he might lose his newly built credibility

​​

The parasite and war shadow took on their disguise, along with the surveillance seed to feed everyone in on what was going on they used the tunnel system during a time the mansion's residents were supposed to be resting

After arriving at Gremm's place they didn't need to call for the feline general as he was the one to greet her, and with a surprise nonetheless

"!!"

The maid took a step back involuntarily as soon as the doors opened, for Gremm had lunged forward with white shining knuckles on his hand that spelled danger to the war shadow hiding under the husk of skin

"Hra!"

He yelled, or roared? Striking at the shadow of the maid before neither the parasite nor the war shadow could really react, the shadow being the normal one that came with every being however

"Hm, just as I guessed he didn't bother setting up one in his servants, humph, careless and overconfident"

"General?"

Asked the maid with confusion

"Oh, hope you didn't get too frightened, it was a necessary precaution"

"What, what are we being careful about?"

Gremm threw the shiny knuckles to one of the two followers, taking a proud stand in readiness to explain his genius unraveling of the truth

"When you brought that seemingly useless information about the shadow moving, combined with the fact that he ordered undead shackles from us, I deduced that he was using shadows to do his scouting, the only reason he knows the area too well is because he planted them inside our floors, the shackles must be in order to further infiltrate our residence and seek even more information"

Well, everyone figured what he deduced from the first visit so that wasn't anything new

"The higher ups thought it was a far fetched idea, until a few days ago, in fact it was the very same day you reported him ordering the shackles to be taken out"

They all stayed quiet, listening with renewed interest

"There was an unknown voice on the eighth floor! Perhaps it could be passed as nothing sometimes but since it happened the very same day they believe he did send his shadow up with the new shackles!"

Gremm seemed smug, no, he was smug about his achievement, else he wouldn't be flaunting about

"Thus we spent quite a fortune to get our hands on some light materials to counter, or at least expose the shadows"

"Umm, so I was called to?"

"Check whether he knew about you being a traitor or not, if he did there should be a shadow following you about"

"I see, is that all general?"

"Mostly, unless you have any new information?"

"Well, I did go to his room and the shackles were not there…."

"Of course they wouldn't be"

Gremm scoffed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, forgetting that he was the one who instructed her to check for them to begin with

The maid had nothing else to report, taking her leave and returning to the meeting hall where the seed was disposed of for Latvia to collect

"Well, that was useless"

YuJu commented which the watchful general was quick to disagree with

"Not really, Gremm did inform us that there came a sound from the eighth floor did he not? Meaning there is someone else keeping an eye out there"

Latvia's tone was serious, ready to put her all into investigating what else could be spying on Genus Insania

"But that was me, I thought he was clear about that as well?"

"...."

How embarrassing, why did this man always make her feel a little dumb

"If passage to the eighth floor is that easy to you then help Latvia plant some drones there, it would be good to finally keep an eye on them"

Aminta took the opportunity to pitch in this request, much in the form of an order

"As much as I would like to it wouldn't really work, they survey the place in it's entirety, even almost spotted me when I was sneaking someone in much less a surveillance drone"

He brought up a good point, if his stealth which everyone seemed hopeless about almost got caught then there was no hope for anyone else to infiltrate and watch the area

"Speaking of the matter, what are you up to on that desolate floor my friend?"

"Just making sure my little spy is doing well"

"You've a spy among them?"

"Naturally, wouldn't be fair if they were the only ones planting their members in our ranks would it"

"Indeed, mind we ask who that spy of yours is?"

Verbrand asked politely, not really expecting an answer, even though everyone here could be trusted that didn't mean it was easy for YuJu to expose his pawns, especially since he was always keeping a mysterious pretense

"Not at all, it's none other than the Enamored Hiss Belinda"

That's why when a name came out everyone's mind halted, one because he shared his hidden spy, two because of who it was

"You mean that head over heels snake? How would she be your spy?! I thought she was madly in love with that crazy thing nestled on the walls of the eighth floor"

Latvia could not believe it

"A baseless rumor, she was merely trying to have something forged, well, a bunch of things"

"Have you any other hidden within their ranks?"

Aminta suddenly interrupted

"No, just this one"

"Then I'm afraid she will do you no good, that woman is no longer involved in this struggle, a mere aiding hand for when fights break out"

"I know, I don't need her to leak information, I already know their plans like the back of my hand, I just need her to screw things up for when they do ask for help, and they will"

Such confidence, no one in the entire of Hortus could say this about Genus Insania and be taken seriously, no one but this man who popped out of nowhere

"If there is nothing else I need to go work some plans out"

"You may leave, keep in mind that you must be present to join a meeting after tomorrow, we will be going over recent major incidents"

"I shall be ready"

"As well as your punishment for your act against Latvia"

Aminta added, staring right into his eyes, he didn't flinch nor rudely smile, merely gave a nod and left without a comment

"That went better than expected"

"Yes, so much better I'm starting to get worried"

Verbrand replied to Latvia's remark

"Why so? It's not always bad when things go well"

"Surely, but somehow I feel like he is getting overly complicant, a far cry from the man who hid all his actions in order to ensure the plan didn't get to go awry, something changed"

"I hate to say it but I disagree, the current him might be just as annoying but still much easier to work with, at least he is giving us something to go on"

"Verbrand is right"

Aminta spoke her mind as the two exchanged opinions

"The way he conducts himself is unsettling, individuals like him are not so easy to change, furthermore"

Her red eyes narrowed in thought, unsure of her own assumptions

"Unlike before where I could feel nothing from him, now I sense some sort of....vile existence"

"Vile?"

She nodded to Latvia's confused tone

"It's familiarly vile, like I've met it once before"

"That's not surprising"

Verbrand spoke

"Was he not supposedly someone we forgot? It only makes sense that we would start to recall his existence, I just hope he really is on our side till the very end"

"Can't help but agree with that"

"....."

Aminta did not agree with the two, not because she didn't want him to be on their side, but because she knew he was already, the only question remained, why would she feel such a familiar evil from within him? Questions continued to grow

The discussion shared between the three was sadly unknown to YuJu, if it was then he could finally notice the new personality being forged within, one that took risks and played along the edge much too often, whether it was testing a theory on Ellis when he could ascertain it somewhere else, or exposing his cards on the playing field, none were things the usual him would do

Alas, when one surrounded himself with questions none would be able to point out the ones he needed to hear