Larrius Varro's first greeting has the word "work" in it. I think this should add the topic "work" to the list of known topics, but it doesn't. You have to either finish the conversation and talk to him again, his second greeting also has the word "work" in it and it will add the topic. Or you have to talk to him about "Imperial", which will also add the topic.

So why does the first greeting not add the topic? What seems even stranger to me is that if you add the topic by console command, before first talking to him, the topic will be there, but the word "work" in his greeting will not be colored blue.

http://lovkullen.net/Emma/Comprehensive_Dialogue.htm

"Tip 6) I added topics but my NPC doesn't have them! Two possibilities: the NPC must have already heard (read) that topic word or phrase before he can ask about it. Usually this is done by having the an NPC's greeting include the topic."

So it's like I said, it should work, the topic should show up the first time you talk to him, because the word "work" is in the greeting. So why doesn't it work like it's supposed to?

Because you haven't trigger the quest itself by talking to NPC in Balmora about the latest rumors, which will update your journal and can be viewed via the "J" (default) key.