The demon lord slithered around the dorms, ignoring the students that were having fun and talking with each others as he searched for the student he wanted to toy with this time around. He had spent the last few days keeping a careful watch on this particular student, learning all he could, even taking the form of a student in order to make eye contact with her and gleam some useful memories.

And now, after masterfully building a wondrous plan and preparing everything within himself, Forneus had decided to make his strike this very night, once he had ascertained the girl's location.

The students within the hallways, however, did not take notice of the monster that had simply passed by them, for he had already made himself invisible, throwing up powerful illusions to ensure his path remained unobstructed.

After several moments, the demon lord finally reached the girl's door. Grinning darkly, Forneus began drawing on his powers to transform himself into a human. Standing six feet tall, with an excellent physique, the blond-haired man looked up at the door. Placing his black sunglasses on and straightening his tie, the demon ensured that his appearance was in order. He did so love his black business suits and had to commend the humans for their fashion tastes of late.

Knocking on the door, the man stepped back slightly and stood up straight as he waited for the girl to answer. As he waited, the Marquis had to admit that he liked this appearance, as it often fit the general archetype of what females wanted in a man, and the present body's appearance had yet failed to attract women with his unnaturally handsome look and gentle smile.

But this was not the time for retrospective thoughts. It was the time for bargaining. The demon laughed inwardly.

Saira had been... believe it or not, making a map all over her desk when the knock on her door came. She was dressed in the standard school uniform (having been walking around the campus only a short while ago), and seemed pretty content, maybe even relaxed. She opened the door with a little smile and a bounce to her step, and greeted the... surprisingly attractive (if in a sort of intimidating businesslike way) man!

"Ah, hi! ...What, uh, can I do for you?"

She seemed a bit confused, leaning on her doorframe and looking over at the man, trying to figure out what it is he wanted anyway. Was he from the administration or something?... though at present she was a little too cheery to turn on the paranoia about the administration finding out about her little... 'night trips'.

Forneus grinned at Saira as she greeted him before leaning against the door frame. This was already off to an excellent start, the demon realized, for his next prey did not suspect him of being a monster just yet. Which called for an preemptive strike of sorts.

"My name is Forneus, and I am a... Broker of sorts for a conglomerate called Hades Industries. First things first, we are not affiliated with Shokushu nor are we connected in any way whatsoever with the 'incidents' on this Island. In fact, we're strongly against what is happening here and have raised many complaints about it in the past."

The demon raised his hands and opened his coat, showing that he had no weapons or anything on his person. "As you can see, I'm not armed at all nor do I wish to harm you. Hades Industries sent me to discuss a proposal with you. Nothing major, just a little quid pro quo, a 'scratch my back and I scratch your back' deal, really."

Looking down both sides of the empty hallway, the man seemed to appear a bit anxious or even unsettled, if one were to study him. "Er, may I come in? It's rather dangerous for me to be caught here on the Island? They'll only punish you students but me, they'll make me disappear."

"Permanently."

With a bit of a surprised gasp, Saira (naively) let the man in, closing the door behind him. She did seem a little skeptical, though, but let it out in a plain, right-to-the-point way she hoped wouldn't cause her any trouble.

"I... if you're in that much danger then I should at least shelter you while you're talking with me. But..."

She tilted her head a little. She looked confused, but only a fool couldn't catch that she was also very wary...

"Not to be rude but. Uh. What kind of company calls itself Hades Industries? What do you even do? And... More importantly how could I possibly be of any use to you? I'm just a no-name anthropology major in a hellhole of a school."

The demon entered the student's room, nodding his thanks to her. "Thank you. I wasn't looking forward to getting captured and killed, actually." Forneus looked around at Saira's room, taking notice of the map she had recently been working on before seating himself on the bed, staring at the girl.

"You bring up valid points." Forneus nodded, spinning additional threads to the web of lies he was now constructing. He had known that this one would be an intelligent, albeit naive, girl and had planned ahead accordingly. "Hades Industries is a conglomerate run by demons. Not demons as you know them, but rather in the sense that we're all businessmen and more interested in accumulating wealth than satisfying lust." Forneus said, referring to the horrors that terrorized the students of Shokushu.

"As for me myself. Like I said, I'm a broker of sorts. I work as a liaison between Hades Industries and their clients. We primarily deal in procuring demons for our clients' use as servants, guards, and weapons. I'm sure you're aware that there are many legends and myths from various civilizations. They're actually based on truths. On our demons, in fact. History has a way of distorting facts, as you are undoubtedly aware."

Now it was time to use the bait he had prepared for her. "While we are aware of your current situation as a 'no name anthropology major' as you put it, there are certain things we have to allow for. We demons are known to bargain with mortals such as yourself, and we do not actually choose who to make a deal with at random. Instead, we are given the names of mortals to bargain with."

Forneus then shrugged at Saira, as if he was saying that this wasn't unusual at all for him. "Well... Your name came up, so I went about the task of finding out as much as I could on you. And happily enough, I have a deal that would mutually benefit us both. You're known to study things of both Egyptian and Arabic nature, and I just happen to have businesses with the Egyptians in, ahem, 1334 B.C."

"Basically what I am offering is to allow you to go with me, away from this island, to Ancient Egypt. Not Egypt as it is today, but the Egypt of the past, untouched by the decay of time. You would have the opportunity to do as you wish, study whatever you want, even speak with the Egyptians. You can spend as long as one full month in Egypt, and with my powers, I can bring you back here right once the month's up, and it would be like you never even left at all. I'm sure you could use the time away from all the attacks here."

Forneus stopped for a moment, allowing the girl to get what he meant. "Normally, I would not offer such a wonderful thing but as things are, my clients in Egypt has requested additional 'goods' from Hades Industries. And here's the thing, the Pharaoh, Akhenaten, does not want any demon to step foot on his court so we need a human to help us. You wouldn't have to do anything at all, just give the Pharaoh our contracts and leave. That's it. One month's time in Egypt to do as you wish, in exchange for acting as our emissary to Akhenaten's court. You, of course, can negotiate the conditions or ask for any additional requests."

The demon fell silent, placing his fingertips together and awaited Saira's response. But on a second thought, he decide to mention something else. "You would also be looked after by our best men. They would be working for you in both the capacity of a guard and a caretaker. As highly unusual as this request is, we are prepared to meet your conditions, as we're in something of a tight spot there."

Saira tilted her head and thought. Thought for a looooong while. This sounded rather in the 'too good to be true' vein to her, and it caused her to, chin-in-hand, look over the suited man skeptically.

"So... Time travel. Ancient cultures, a month of study. It makes me wonder why you didn't just scoop up someone off the streets of that era, with at least some vague clue of how to act? ...So I... I mean I'd love to but... Doesn't that mean there's a big catch? That of course you're not telling me? Occam's Razor is not being very friendly to you."

She did nervously smile, though.

"I don't mean to insult you, but is there some reasonable explanation for my concerns? If you can provide that I might be... more... willing to consider your offer."

Forneus nodded at Saira's words, not surprised she would ask her questions at all. "It's no insult at all, really! In fact, considering where we are and the things you students go through at Shokushu, I'm pleasant to see that you're on your guard.

"Excellent questions though. Let's see where do I begin... We could have picked up any native off the street instead of using humans like you, yes. We probably could do that. We probably should do that. But it would have been too bothersome to explain to them all the nuances of being a broker and bargaining with me. The superstitious does not make for excellent agents." The demon shrugged.

"Also, as I said... We don't choose who we bargain with, we're assigned to mortals with whom we make bargains with. Your name came up but the demon who was supposed to meet you is still stuck in his proceedings with Hitler so they sent me instead. And as seeing as I have my own workload to do for Hades Industries and you happen to be interested in the subject... It was killing two birds with a stone. I was going to pass you off as a foreigner, actually, so they'd understand why you're 'different'. They're used to seeing agents of Hades Industries, you know, so you wouldn't be out of place."

"And finally," Forneus stared at Saira, wondering how to best explain the catch. "The 'big catch' as you called it. Just a few conditions, really. One, you can't bring back anything from the past, which would be dangerous. Two, you can make scientific theories on what you found in Egypt but you can't bring back proof of it either, you'll have to prove it the old fashioned way. And three, you cannot tell anyone in Egypt where you're really from. That's it. Just simple precautions, we don't want time to get distorted."

Now to sweeten up the deal! "We have an embassy in the capital, Thebes, the entire top floor has been converted into a penthouse for your use, stocked with plenty of food and beverages, along with a rather nice home entertainment system. Quite comfortable, actually. The people we ask to work for us often get treated well. All your needs will be taken care of by our employees working at the embassy too. Just something to consider."

For a second Saira still wanted to think there was a catch. In fact she desperately needed there to be a catch. But... With a subtle nod? She realized she couldn't really get anything better than this. It'd be a vacation from the monsters, even if she'd be surrounded by -other- monsters. So with an outstretched hand, she grinned at the man.

"Alright, then. That's good enough for me. Let's call it a deal!... Er, is there any kind of blood contract or some schtick like that or am I acvtually able to make my word enough?"

Forneus grinned back at Saira, pleased that his plan had worked but how could she ever expect to realize that? For all intent and purpose, the demon seemed as if he was merely happy to have his proposal accepted. He then brought his hand up which happened to be holding a contract that seemed to have been pulled from the thin air. And in a voice that sounded quite serious... "Blood is acceptable..."

And then trailed off into an amused tone. "But I prefer ink. Lasts longer and isn't as messy. You may want to pack some clothes for your stay, unless you plan on wearing one set of attire?" The demon brought up a golden ring with a ruby set into the band from his pocket, holding it out for the girl. "You're gonna need this, it'll make others see you as one of them, though you won't see any differences yourself. That way they won't ask you too many questions."

Saira nodded, and, grabbing a pen from off of a desk nearby in her room... looked over the contract carefully. She wasn't stupid, and knew that demons and contracts were tricky bedfellows. Though... in all likelihood the contract seemed innocuous enough that even staring deeply and intently at all the terms didn't make anything suspicious come to light. So... with a quick dash of the pen, Saira scribbled out her signature. Then, of course, she took the ring, deciding to let putting it on wait until she needed it.

"Alright then. Signed, sealed, and delivered. When do we start? Once I get my clothes and other stuff ready?"

The demon brought the contract to his eyes, going over it before being satisfied. Sticking the signed paper into his suit, Forneus grinned at Saira, nodding at her question. "Yes, that'd be nice, actually. I'm somewhat on a schedule and if I could drop you off at our embassy in Thebes before seeing to my next customer, that'd be helpful. It'll only be a quick trip though, as easy as opening a door, really." And to prove his point, the demon got off the bed and went for the doorknob, twisting it before opening the door wide open. What the door showed, however, was not the hallway of Shokushu's dormitory.

Instead, it appeared much like a floor belonging to that of a business, with plenty of desks and chairs along with paperwork and computers. Further proof of the 'authenticity' of Hades Industries as a corporation. The people going about their business, too, showed signs of demonic characteristics such as horns and claws, or otherwise non-human behavioral traits. "Like I said, it's a quick trip. This is the administrative floor of our embassy in Thebes, your room for the month is just a couple of floors up, actually. And your guards should be along soon enough." Forneus added with a grin at Saira.