Seated below the tree outside his dorm, Lucius yawned as he looked around the small, yet vibrant garden of their building. Gilly was standing beside him, tapping his foot on the ground in a slow, uneven rhythm.

"Is she..."

"She'll come," Lucius said before breathing on his hands and rubbing them together.

"You know we don't have to do this early in the morning, right? Our PCM classes start at ten in the morning, not six like our PCC classes."

"I am not taking any chances again. And besides, you don't have to go with me. Just go back upstairs. Get some rest."

Gilly frowned. "And leave you alone with her? No way."

Lucius tilted his head before looking at Gilly. Curious and taken aback by his roommate's words, he asked, "What do you mean by that? She's the one who found me and brought me here, just so you know. In other words, I owe her a debt I still haven't repaid."

Gilly's eyes widened as he waved his hands and said, "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything bad by it. It's just that—"

"Heya, Lucius! Been waiting long?"

Lucius smiled. He'd recognize that thin, trilly voice and strange way of talkin' anywhere.

"Not at all." Lucius stood up and he greeted Tissette with a nod. "Shall we go?"

"Woah there, someone's eager!" Tissette shouted as she tried patting Lucius on the shoulder, but failed as the latter leaned out of reach. Unperturbed, she then looked behind Lucius and smiled. "Who's this?"

"Gilly. My roommate."

Lucius turned to look at Gilly who stepped back away from him and Tissette with a tight frown on his face.

Still confused as to why Gilly was acting strange, Lucius was about to ask him what was wrong but Tissette got to talk to him first.

"Oh, hey there Lucy's roommate! You comin' with?"

"Y-Yes. Please," Gilly replied with a quick nod, his eyes pointed solely to the ground.

Tissette chuckled and gave Gilly a sideways look. "No need to say please. Wait, has Lucy's politeness rubbed off on you already?"

"It is called etiquette, Tiz. And it's dead nowadays, apparently." Lucius sighed before rubbing his eyes. "Enough of this and just take us to Margraves. That is why we woke up early, is it not?"

"Oh, so you've heard of him already?"

"Yes. And I would like to see him soon if you would just—"

"Fine, fine," Tissette said, rolling her eyes before turning around. "Looks like someone didn't get much sleep last night. Oh, I bet you stayed up thinkin' about that episode. It was great, wasn't it?"

With one last giggle, Tissette walked onwards, beckoning them to follow.

Lucius followed her closely behind, relieved as he finally got her moving along.

"Lucius, y-you were with them last night?" Gilly whispered after leaning over Lucius's shoulder with a concerned look on his face.

"Yeah, why?"

"And you watched a lightbox show with them at noon? Don't you know that that's not allowed anymore?"

"Correct. The Last Prince, I believe the show's name was. And I wasn't aware that it was forbidden until after I was invited, so, to be courteous..."

Gilly shook his head, seemingly in disbelief as he leaned away from Lucius.

"What're you guys whisperin' about there? Mind if I join in?" Tissette said in her usual, jovial tone.

"N-Nothing, Tissette."

"Oh, you know my name? You can call me Tiz too if you'd like. Wait, did Lucy tell you about me? We're great friends y'know."

"I've heard," Gilly replied with a wry smile on his face.

Lucius narrowed his eyes, thoroughly puzzled after observing just how Gilly was behaving around Tissette. Even earlier, Gilly immediately looked flustered when he said that he was meeting Tissette, at which point Gilly insisted on coming along.

Wondering what was wrong with his friend, Lucius leaned over Gilly's shoulder and whispered, "Is there something wrong? You seem a bit odd."

"Y-You know what? I'm still feeling a bit sleepy after all. I'll just go back to the dorms by myself. Sorry to bother you two," Gilly said in between obviously faked yawns.

"Gilly, wait—"

"I think I'll just see you at PMC later, Lucius. Bye," Gilly muttered before finally walking back to the dorm on his own, leaving Lucius and Tissette as they stared at each other awkwardly before they continued on their way.

"Sorry. That was probably my fault," Tissette said, her expression gloomy unlike before.

"But why? You didn't do anything," Lucius said before lifting a brow. "Did you?"

"N-No. W-Well not now, but..."

Tissette looked as if she was about to say something important, but much to Lucius's surprise, she simply shrugged and moved on.

"Or maybe he's really just sleepy? It still is pretty early, y'know."

Lucius gave Tissette a sideways glance and simply nodded after seeing the small, yet-still noticeable frown on her face.

This must be one of the 'cues' that that book, 'Non-Verbal Communication at its Finest', discussed. Page 44, paragraph 8. It's better not to push it...I think.

And so, he didn't.

...

After arriving at the lower levels of the '200 Virtus and above' section of the dormitories, Lucius nodded in amazement after seeing just how much of an improvement the individual rooms were compared to his own. The doors were few and far between, and he could only guess just how big each of them was on the inside.

"Well, here we are," Tissette said before swinging a colorful, well-decorated door open nonchalantly before walking inside.

"Aren't we supposed to—"

"Knock? Hah, no need." Tissette grinned. "Well, not on Margrave's door, at least."

Lucius reluctantly entered the room and was immediately overwhelmed by the sight of different wares that were scattered neatly across the dorm room, ranging from mundane things such as clothes and foodstuff to more valuable items such as potions, spellbooks, and even Materia.

Hmm. That smells good.

After eyeing the items, Lucius's sensitive nose twitched as he looked around for the source of the aroma around the air. What little time he spent at the academy's dining hall for the past few days allowed him to recognize the scrumptious and enticing smell of the delicacy the Outworlders call bacon, and it was exactly the scent he was smelling now.

"There you both are!"

A human male much older than both Lucius and Tissette walked out from the backroom, still in his pajamas. Upon seeing Lucius, his smile instantly widened—showing off his shiny, gold-plated teeth.

This must be Margraves Valentine, the leader and the sole member of the Golden Conglomerate. As Gilly said, this one's indeed quite hard to miss, isn't he?

Lucius almost grimaced as he looked at Margrave's shining, bright yellow teeth. Almost.

Why in Deus's name would he do this to himself?

"Wow, you caught me in the middle of making breakfast! You came pretty early."

"It's alright. We won't be long anyway. Lucy here's just afraid of being late for his first PCM class," Tissette said.

"Ooh, a newbie huh?" Margraves, "Can I interest you in some of my wares, fellow Primus? I've got Triforce-enhancing potions, green spellbooks, a lot of materia you haven't even seen before, and—"

"No."

Margraves frowned, his excitement devolving to annoyance in a drop of a hat. "Wait what?. Then what are you doing in here then?"

"Not to buy anything," Lucius replied with an embarrassed smile. "I don't have that much gold, I'm afraid."

"What the hell, Tiz? I thought you said that he's cool?!" Margraves shouted as she pointed at Tissette, his mouth wide open in disbelief.

"But he is though," Tissette said absently while eyeing something among the different hair accessories being sold at the corner of the room.

"Oh." As if realizing his mistake, Margraves slapped his face and shouted, "Not that kind of cool, Tiz. Like the loaded kind of cool! You're supposed to tell me if he's one of the richer ones!"

"He's not though. He only has like, what, five gold coins on him right now?"

"Yeah, five," Lucius said as he remembered the gold coins Tissette gave her about a week ago after defeating an aberrant. "And I don't have it on me right now."

"Then why would you even tell me to open up this early?"

"Didn't I tell you that I got you some business?" Tissette said before pointing at Lucius. "My friend here wants to do the quests from within the academy. Y'know, the typical Student Agent stuff."

Margrave's eyes narrowed, his anger seemingly dissipating as his toothy grin slowly returned. "Oh, does he now?"

"I do."

"Why?"

With a brow raised, Lucius asked back, "Do you need to know?"

"Heh, secretive. I like it," Margraves said with a nod of approval. "Fine, keep your secrets. All that matters to me is that you understand the rules."

"I do. Tiz ran it by me on the way here. You get half the gold and—"

"The identity and affairs of the clients should always stay secret. Good, good," Margraves said before handing Lucius a piece of paper that he fished right under the sleeves of his robe. "Now sign this. Read it first if you want. Not that there's much to read anyway."

Lucius looked at the contract and saw nothing but the two rules he heard Tissette mention before.

1. The Contractor gets half of the monetary reward for every quest that has been completed by the Student Agent.

2. The identity and affairs of the clients must always be kept secret.

Whosoever breaks these rules shall be liable to punishment including, but not limited to: expulsion from the Student Agent Program, lawful imprisonment, mandatory community service, and in some cases, expulsion from the academy that you are enrolled in. Please sign at your own peril.

Lucius nodded to himself as he recognized the mark of the Merchant's Association—a clenched, golden fist—on top of the contract. Then, he scoffed.

Very subtle.

Lucius signed the contract without any further questions. As the leader of a faction that was backed by one of the biggest and most influential groups in Elyssia, he expected nothing but professionalism from Margraves despite how he looked, and he was pretty sure that it went both ways.

After all, despite their lack of strong members, no one in Elyssia would ever dare cross the Golden Conglomerate. Lucius deemed it wise that he'd certainly not be the first to do so.

Margraves rolled up the contract before walking away to get a small, inscription-riddled device made out of steel in his drawer. He walked back and handed the device to Lucius with a grin.

"Just come back here if you want the list updated, or whenever you have my cut. Oh, and don't lose the Questgiver unless you want your student agent membership revoked. Forever. Those don't come cheap, see."

"Understood," Lucius mumbled as he looked at the small device in his hand—his name slowly being engraved on it in small, glowing letters as soon as his hand made contact with it. His eyes narrowed as he played with the device—completely enamored by its resemblance to a lightbox.

If I'm not mistaken, this device functions through inscriptions just like a lightbox, although a bit more limited in its capabilities. Still very amusing though. Hmm, there should be a power button in here somewhere. Oh, there it is.

Lucius pressed the small notch on the Questgiver and was surprised by the sight of hundreds of quests titles—all displayed in a neat row at the surface of the steel slab.

"Good. Don't break the rules or we'll break you, yadda yadda yadda, now get out of my dorm if you're not gonna buy anything. I'm losing gold just by talking to you!"

Lucius tore his eyes away from the Questgiver and gave Margraves a confused look. "That's it?"

"That's it," Margraves said before rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Unless you got something valuable you wanna sell to me? My prices are—"

Tissette frowned and stepped in front of Lucius. "I doubt it. He was taken by the slavers, y'know. He practically had nothing but clothes on him when I found him."

Margraves visibly recoiled as soon as he heard the word 'slavers'. "Tsk. Bad business. Sorry about that, Lucius. Just know that those miscreants do not represent all of us tradespeople."

Lucius was about to nod when he smelled something repulsive. He sniffed the air, his nose slowly scrunching before he covered it with a hand. He looked at Margraves with a worried frown. "Something's burning."

"What are you—Oh, right. My breakfast. Oh no, my breakfast!" Margraves's eyes widened as he turned to look at the backroom before running towards it.

"Well, there goes his food," Tissette said before walking out the door with her hands behind her head, shrugging. "Shame. That bacon smelled pretty great too."

"It did," Lucius followed Tissette outside with a sigh, his hand clutching his growling stomach. He resolved it was not the time to think about his gut, however, as the excitement he had for his PCM class far overshadowed his hunger. He cannot be late. Not again, especially after what happened in his first PCC class.

In the meantime, he tinkered with the Questgiver as he walked with Tissette, completely baffled by the device and the number of quests listed on it.

"Isn't that great, Lucy? You're a Student Agent now!" Tissette congratulated Lucius with a wide, fanged grin.

"So it would seem," Lucius said before hiding the Questgiver in his uniform's lower pocket—the thoughts of progressing his level and earning some gold along the way making him grin absently as he walked to class.