In all honesty I felt that the warning siren I already gained, as well as access to the knowledge of the future progressing condition of Morgana, and what it might spell for us in the future, was more than enough compensation for all that I have done, as I was already profiting greatly from this exchange; but why would I deny a meal when it was so readily handed to me, so I merely nodded and waited for him to spill what secrets he has.

Seeing me focus my full attention on him, he swiftly said, not willing to waste more time here "The Luminous Empire has not given up yet on the power of Runes."

His words were a surprise to us all, as we all thought that the western empire had become disillusioned with the fickle force of runes since the last war between us three years ago, yet here he was, claiming it was the opposite.

Turning to both Darius and Isaac, I looked to see if they could collaborate this information, but the two shook their heads in denial, having not even heard of a single whisper of this beforehand.

"For what purpose are they doing it now? More armour for their Gryphon Knights?" Leonid asked, since he was originally a commander of the Luminous Empire's forces, he was obviously the most interested in the matter.

"Yes, but they also seem to be investing heavily in creating far superior forms of arms for their infantry as well." Maximillian replied, and if his earlier words were surprising than this was utterly incomprehensible.

"Are you certain of this?" I asked out of sheer disbelief.

"Not absolutely, since I too found it hard to believe, but I am fairly confident that it is, at the very least, partly true." He calmly answered, and though his tone was mild with a hint of impatience, our minds were in turmoil.

Rune Writing, as it is called, is an ancient craft first developed by the greatest Arch mage of his time, Sophos the Insatiable or what he is better known as today, Sophos the Sacrilegious, who first gave form to this artform by studying the marks that appeared on the bodies of demi-Gods when they used their power, and though it is near impossible for a mortal to gaze upon the language of the divine for long without becoming dizzy, and eventually fainting, no matter their strength, he persisted for nearly a century, enduring all the stress and uncomfortableness of looking at the Gods' glyphs.

But eventually even he had to admit his failure, as he could never replicate them no matter how long he tried, all because of one simple reason, and that is that the markings covering our bodies are essentially, truly and utterly perfect; and no mortal, no matter how talented or experienced they may be, can ever hope to create, or even just replicate, something that is undeniably without flaw.

But he wouldn't be remembered if he simply gave up, now would he.

So being the persistent mad genius that he was, and realizing the limitations shackling at the hands of his own mortality, he did something that none would have even dared to imagine, let alone contemplate and then act upon.

He, to the horror of all who had ears to hear it, chose to corrupt the sacred words of the Gods by perversely adding minor, almost unnoticeable defects onto them, therefore making them defective deviants of their once glorious selves, coercing them fit in the world of the mundane, and thus allowing them to be modelled by mortal hands.

Symbols he later on named Runes, crowning him as the first Rune Writer in history.

Yet akin to every genius to have ever existed, his hubris was ultimately his downfall, for the sin of tainting the perfect does not come cheaply, and his greatest achievement in life came back to bite him in the end, for he, like many others who followed in his footsteps, would soon be felled at the hands of his own creations.

Because with the distortion of the Gods' words, an unexpected problem arrived with it, one that ultimately crippled this fledgling craft in it's crib.

For you see, to actually make use of the tremendous potential of runes, the Rune Writer would have to obviously inscribe the rune upon an object, but that is an immensely challenging thing to do, for if the deviation from the origin glyph is too vast then it would be nothing more than a pretty looking symbol, but if the deviation was minute, like Sophos intended it to be, then you run the very real risk of an adverse reaction occurring if the alteration to the rune is even a single millimetre off from what Sophos had so painstakingly researched and created.

And these unknowable reactions could be one from a whole host of both recorded and unrecorded possibilities, such as giving something the opposite trait you wanted it to acquire, or transmutation of a certain element into something else, or the most common occurrence, an explosion that claims the life of the Rune Writer, which was one of the main reason these men have all but become a dying breed by this point, with one being capable of counting the few remaining, stubborn survivors on their hands.

Which is why the majority of those persisting few, now reside in the Luminous Empire, since only the economic powerhouse of the world could withstand the utterly absurd cost of their experiments and products, because for every successful trial a hundred catastrophes would occur, and for every finished blade or armour inscribed with runes, a thousand more had been thrown as waste, to be reforged yet again, if at all.

So the idea that the Luminous Empire wanted to reinforce most of their military with rune inscribed weapons was utterly without reason, especially since even ordinary weapons are often times damaged beyond repair in a single battle, which be a problem usually as they could be easily replaced, but imagine you must do this with rune inscribed weapons.

It simply wouldn't work, just due to how stupidly inefficient it is, without even mentioning the infinite syphon of wealth and resources such a thing would clearly become.

"How did you come to know of this?" Darius asked after a moment, finding it odd that such a thing would be happening and it escaped the ears of our numerous spies.

"Though collecting information isn't my forte, my people's ears are still scattered in everywhere, some of them in places you and your traditional information gathering agencies wouldn't think to even look." Maximillian vaguely explained, clearly unwilling to divulge his informant's identity.

Either way it didn't matter much to me, since whether this news is real or not, it was worth keeping an eye out for it, since the last time the Luminous Empire showcased a piece of their rune inscribed technology it cost the empire an army, a major battle, an emperor and nearly the whole war.

"Alright then, and the second piece of information?" I asked, changing the subject since no further fruit would be bore if we continued to question on the matter.

"The Yue Dynasty has been hiring a great many more mercenary companies than usual in the past few months." He said, making us look at him in confusion.

'So what if they have hired a few more mercenaries than usual?' We all thought incredulously, since all of the nations in this world relied on the bloody, and often times cheaper labour of mercenaries in one way or another, especially in the ever present field of bandit extermination.

This was particularly true in my lands, as it often times proved far more economical to simply throw a few Darr coins to a random troop of hired swords than to mobilize soldiers from sometimes long distances away, to simply deal with a rambunctious band of bandits.

But we didn't give voice to our momentary thoughts, since we didn't believe that Maximillian would waste time by coming here to trade such useless information with his wife in such a dire condition, and our suspicions proved to be true, as his next words explained it all.

"Last I checked, they should have hired close to one hundred thousand men by now, and the number might have even swelled beyond that point by now." He calmly said, as if it were the most mundane thing in the world, but alarm signals were once again blaring in our skulls.

'This is an invasion force.' I grimly thought. 'No one hires that many men for no reason, especially that close fisted Tianlan, he would rather die than waste so much money on something like this. But who is the target of this army? Us or the Boreas Empire?'

"What?! How could they have hired so many men, and we heard nothing about it?!" Darius whirled to Isaac, who looked just as muddled as the rest of us.

"It's normal for you to have not noticed it." Eleonora began "We ourselves hadn't noticed such a mass migration of mercenaries to their lands until a little while ago."

"They've kept the matter hidden by cleverly distributing them across their empire. Practically every city from in the east has at least one mercenary company residing in it now." Sophia continued.

Upon hearing their words, a single word rung out in all our ears 'Strife!'

Since no one who is preparing for a foreign conquest would scatter his men like that all over the country, this was something one does when more nefarious plans are at work, and he feels his control over the nation is slipping.

But it still boggles the mind, as to why Tianlan would be doing it in such an uncharacteristic, and odd manner. He has thousands of soldiers who are loyal to him, so why rely on often times unreliable mercenaries, who only serve you as long as their purses are well stuffed.

"Why do this?" I asked as I leaned forward.

"No idea. Honestly, I was as surprised as you are right now, when I first heard this information." He answered, his tone revealing no falsehood.

This stumped me even more, as thought for a moment before asking as I half turned in my seat to look at Darius "Is it due to the minister of the left?"

I reasoned that Tianlan might be preparing to purge the dissatisfied and far more militant minister of the left and his faction, while never even consider the minister of the right, since he was a notoriously loyal pacifist, who despises bloodshed nearly as much as he loves Tianlan.

His aversion to violence is so extreme that he was even the man who convinced his emperor to pursue a peaceful strategy with us, in complete opposition of his rival who vehemently insisted that they shift to one built on aggression, after months of tiring political battles. So why would someone like that ever want to prepare a secret army for?

'This is making no sense!' I thought in frustration, momentarily starting to think that Maximillian was trying to sell me some absurd lies wrapped under a guise of truthfulness.

But then I shook my head and decided to trust the man for the moment at least, as I didn't believe he would try to pull such a scheme when his wife was in such dire straights.

But before I could say anything else, he stood up with Morgana still in his arms, and proclaimed as they all strode off "I have given you what you're owed, so now I must leave."

I wanted to call out for him, as I had one more question to ask, but seeing the impatient intensity in his steps, I decided to shelve it for another time, for fear of irritating the fretting dragon; and it wasn't as though I had much time left to think of much else after all I'd learned in our short talk tonight.