Surprise aside, they were quite interested in the answer. The way Envy had been spoken about this entire time- no, even without that- Realising that Envy, the person they were targeting, was the initiator of the entire GREEN Horror, was enough to make everyone worry. The only reason they weren’t too frightened was because Gaia had been speaking quite boldly the entire time, she seemed quite certain of her success.
But now that the Toad had asked why that was, they suddenly felt the irresistible need to hear the answer. After all, their lives were at risk, they needed to hear ALL the details.
Gaia remained quiet for a moment, but then she spoke. “I can not reveal the answer just yet.”
Silence descended once more.
“I knew it.” A solemn voice spoke. It was the Toad again. “This is all a trap. I had been suspecting since the beginning that this was a ruse, but now I know for sure that if I obey any of your requests, I will be walking into certain doom, perhaps even death.”
Gaia frowned. “Toad-”
“I believe you when you say that this Envy is incredibly powerful, more so than you, Jörma, or anyone else. We’ve all seen the Green Horror and heard of the giant green bird, so he’s certainly real. But the fact that you want to gather us all to attack something like that? Is that some kind of joke?”
“If you’d let-”
“I suspect that you plan to trap us all in some advantageous location, pretending that that is where Envy is, and absorb our strengths using one of your many ways, or maybe… You are actually an envoy of Envy, and want to deliver us straight to him. I had been hoping otherwise, but the holes in your plan are becoming too noticeable. I mean, seriously? You can’t even tell us how you plan to defeat Envy? Someone else can see what I’m seeing right or is the fumes making me see things?”
His words had visible effects on the crowd but nobody made a sound.
“Are you done?” Gaia asked, her tone far darker than before.
“Well, I have other-”
“Silence, nameless Toad. You’re done. It’s my turn to speak now. And if you interrupt me one more time your life is forfeit. I’d been allowing it this whole time so that I could understand what actually gave you the confidence to cut off my words, but now I see that it is all just pointless drivel.”
The toad opened his mouth, closed it, then gave a slow nod.
Gaia didn’t generally like to act this arrogant. It was one thing to rely on might and threats rather than civil convincing words on a regular day but it made you appear like a brute when you did it in purely social situations that didn’t require it. But she was conversing with Beasts, and for that matter, Beasts which barely had the faintest understanding of diplomacy, unlike Beasts on other planets which had much longer histories.
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The only thing the Beasts on this planet currently respected was might. It would make her appear submissive and weak if she just allowed the Toad to continue to carelessly interrupt her, which was detrimental, so to counter that a domineering display was needed.
Getting him to lower his head was a fine result so she inwardly sighed and turned to the rest of the crowd to explain herself.
“The reason I cannot tell you all how I plan to defeat Envy is because… I am 100% certain that a few of us here have been affected by Envy. It’s pointless to try and figure out who, because until the point they fully embrace the Sin of Envy it would rarely show, but the likelihood that at least one person here-” She gave an intent-filled side glance at the Toad. “Is an envoy of Envy, is too high.”
“You may not have even succumbed. But if he has ever made the effort to mentally speak to you before, he can use that mental gateway to hear what you hear and see what you see, even now.” She wasn’t actually certain of that, but she had heard from Theodore that Envy had spoken to him, and had made clear indicators that he could see what Theo saw. The actual requirement for that feat may be higher than what she said, but it definitely was not a problem to exaggerate it.
“Which is obviously something that we cannot avoid. So when the war comes, I will have to discuss with only trusted individuals how to give us the best outcome and prevent the most losses, but in the end, only I will know how to truly defeat Envy. I have a lot to gain like all of you here, but I have the most to lose because of this great burden.”
She was sure that in this moment, various groups were subtly ‘eyeing’ each other using their Spiritual Sense, trying to catch an Envoy of Envy off guard, and she would be lying if she said she didn’t want that, at least for now. It would greatly remove the suspicion from her own back and that was all to her benefit. But eventually, she would have to make efforts to keep tensions low.
At the very least, they were now aware that even their allies could suddenly betray them because of Envy. And although that was certainly not a good idea if you wanted to convince people to go to war with you, it would not only enlighten them to a possible threat, but it would also increase the desire for Envy’s death in their minds. How could they be happy and content knowing that at any moment their friend could stab them in the back because of the orders of Envy, without prompt or reason, even if they didn’t participate in the war?
Even if the slower-minded people weren’t thinking those thoughts now, they would eventually, and it would only increase their hate for Envy. So at the very least, even if they were useless to the war and died in some ditch later on, the words she said now would spread to the rest of the continent and the hate it would generate towards Envy would prevent more people from succumbing to him.
Still, sharper minds like Jörma, Titania, Apis and others were no doubt still suspecting her goals, and that was one of the reasons she had quickly ended her sentence with. ‘I have a lot to gain like all of you here, but I have the most to lose because of this great burden.’
What a joke. In reality, she had the most to gain as the controller of everything, and as for ‘the most to lose’? Hah. There was little chance of her personally losing in the first place, even if all went wrong and everyone else in the war died. But even if she did lose, wouldn’t she - at most - die like everyone else? She had the qualifications to prevent her mind from being enslaved, so what else was there to be afraid of?
As for the other reason, it was because just before that, she had stated that she was the only one that would ever know how to defeat Envy, which was, no doubt, suspicious. But by saying she had the greatest burden, she was essentially saying that as the one to defeat Envy, she would be the one put in the most danger, which was actually true. Especially since the envoy’s of Envy in this meeting, along with the entire forces of Envy, would later focus on her when the war started. Anywho, saying what she said went a great way to prevent people from asking her about what she knew out of pride.
She had learnt long ago that It was always how you said things, not what you said, that mattered most.