Elsa never would have imagined that after dealing with the kobolds today, while eating bread and singing on her way back to the city, she would suddenly be abducted by a Giant Dragon!
And a Red Dragon at that—the kind with the worst reputation!
Cracked horns, deep crimson scales, wings wreathed in flame, and eyes like molten lava.
These features all pointed to one terrifying name—the Unforeseen Calamity, the Ancient Red Dragon, Zog.
The fall of Talin City, the annihilation of the Lion King Knight Order, the disappearance of the Elf Treasure, the burning of the Magic Goddess Divine Hall...
All sorts of horrifying disasters had forged this Giant Dragon's fearsome reputation.
'But why would an Ancient Dragon, of all things, snatch a lowly Level Two Illusionist like her instead of storming the Capital City to kidnap a Princess?'
'To eat me?'
'Impossible. If he were going to eat me, I'd be approaching his rectum by now.'
'He couldn't possibly want me just because I can create little Illusions, right?'
'Could it be...'
She glanced at the Giant Dragon in terror, then at... the *little dragon*. An absurd idea began to spread through her mind.
'It won't fit. There's no way it'll fit.'
She was carried farther and farther away. A salty scent drifted on the wind; they had reached the sea.
A few hundred meters ahead lay a volcanic island. The Giant Dragon spread its wings to decelerate. That must be its Dragon Nest.
'I'm sorry, Mom. Your daughter probably isn't coming home.'
The Dragon Claw gripping her set her down on a stone platform, immediately followed by a draconic roar.
The immense pressure made her heart pound violently, and she nearly fainted.
After the roar, a goblin with brownish-green skin scrambled out of a cave, tumbling and crawling to the Giant Dragon's feet to communicate with Zog.
Elsa knew this must be the Evil Dragon's servant. Vile and powerful creatures never lacked for followers.
The goblin rose and approached her with a lecherous gait.
'It's over. This is even worse than my darkest imaginings. Dying in a Dragon Claw would at least be quick, but who knows what kind of fate awaits me in the hands of a goblin.'
'So he just captured me as a reward for his servant.'
'Isn't this the part of the story where a hero is supposed to show up?'
'Someone, please save me! I'm only nineteen, I don't want to die.'
'Maybe I should just bite my tongue and end it all. At least I'd die with some dignity.'
'Ouch, that hurts. I can't bring myself to bite down.'
The goblin drew closer, even rubbing its hands together. The filth packed beneath its fingernails was physically nauseating.
Elsa squeezed her eyes shut, unable to face the cruel reality.
"Respected Miss."
Huh? What was that? She nervously cracked her eyes open. It wasn't a hallucination—the goblin was actually speaking.
"My great master wishes to hire you as his Chief Toy Illusionist for a salary of fifteen Silver Coins per month. You have the choice to either agree or not refuse."
"Huh?"
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Xu Linsen, also known as Zog, was a former game developer and a current Ancient Red Dragon.
His hobby was money. His faith was money. His kink was also money.
This pure pursuit of wealth stemmed partly from his draconic nature, and partly from the fact that humans are much the same.
After all, if not for the need to earn a little extra, who would willingly be woken up by their phone on a weekend morning, only to grumble a curse and text back, "Got it."?
After transmigrating, driven by his craving for Gold Coins and the fact that his physical condition was just a *little* bit better than before, he quickly settled into the Dragon Race's comfort zone.
Robbery!
Of course, possessing the soul of a human, he generally only plundered wealth, not lives, and his targets were primarily nobles.
Though his fearsome reputation spread far and wide—to the point that all sorts of exaggerated or fabricated crimes were pinned on him—he didn't care.
For many years, he just let the rumors fly.
That is, until he accidentally burned down one of the Magic Goddess's Divine Halls.
After that, a mere Level Eight Warrior showed up at his old lair and challenged him.
He admired the man's courage and decided to let the Warrior live, planning to just shoo him away.
Then he watched as the Warrior pulled a Magic Scroll from his bag—an Eleventh Ring scroll.
He immediately realized who he had provoked and decided to flee on the spot, but he still barely escaped with his life.
While recovering from his injuries, he reflected on the painful lesson: all this fighting and killing was just too risky.
Even though an Ancient Dragon was one of the world's top combatants, if he truly provoked one of the Deities, even protecting himself would be a challenge.
But he'd lost a good chunk of his hoard, and not getting it back went against all draconic principles.
In his predicament, he thought of his boss from his past life—a real son of a bitch who had dabbled in all sorts of entertainment industries, from games and film to music. The man's reputation was atrocious, but he had made an absolute fortune.
'This is way faster than just robbing people!'
He'd either been fighting or on his way to a fight before. It wasn't until he had some downtime that he realized just how absurdly barren this world's entertainment options were.
It was like a mountain of gold sitting right in front of him, and he'd never thought to dig.
It was time to give the natives of this Otherworld a taste of consumerist pacifiers.
He first tried a low-cost approach: publishing a series of novels.
Titles like *The Demon Lord's Runaway Lover*, *My Father-in-Law is the Lionheart King*, and *From the Tentacle Monster to Godhood*.
The profits weren't great. Although he did earn something, most people weren't in the habit of buying books purely for entertainment, so the novels only circulated among the nobility.
Concerned with their image, the nobles couldn't display these books openly, which led to rampant piracy. As a result, the official copies couldn't be sold for a high price.
It seemed wish-fulfillment stories were still a bit too ahead of their time for this world.
After some reflection, he decided to deep-dive into the Blue Sea market, organically integrating innovative products with the local ecosystem to drive industry iteration and achieve business empowerment.
In layman's terms: find something that already existed here, improve on it, and the market would be more receptive.
And so, he chose the toy industry.
First, they were sufficiently widespread. As long as a family wasn't exceptionally poor, their children would have at least two or three toys.
Second, the price ceiling was also high. Young masters and ladies often spent several Gold Coins on a single handmade toy.
To research the market, the great Ancient Dragon himself ordered his Beastman subordinates to go out and buy toys of all kinds—the more variety, the better.
After studying them, he found that this world's toys generally competed on looks, with very little innovation when it came to how you played with them.
He planned to combine magical Elements with toys from Earth, achieving a kind of "dimensionality-reduction strike" on the local toys in terms of sheer fun.
But after drafting a few initial toy designs, he quickly ran into a problem: what to do about the Magic.
Dragon Language Magic was all about the art of explosion.
The magic of goblins and Beastman Shamans was in a delicate "I-reckon-it-works" state—in other words, extremely unstable.
The magic of the Undead was tinged with curses. Who in their right mind would buy that stuff for a child?
On the entire, vast Dragon Island, there wasn't a single being who knew non-violent Magic.
So, he had "invited" Elsa.
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Elsa was dumbfounded. What was happening to the world?
She'd been abducted by a dragon while walking down the road, and the reason given was to make her a "Toy Illusionist" of all things.
'What happened to the greedy, vile, arrogant archvillain from the stories?'
Although she wasn't allowed to refuse, and she still had no idea what the job even was, a monthly salary of fifteen Silver Coins was, frankly, very tempting.
Her family of four spent no more than Fifty Silver Coins a year.
Between her work as a lab assistant and the occasional extermination quest, she was lucky to make Ten Silver Coins a month.
'No, Elsa, what are you thinking? That's the Red Dragon Zog! What if "Toy Illusionist" means an Illusionist who serves as a *toy* for goblins?'
She instantly recalled the countless filthy stories that Minstrels only told in their late-night performances.
She made up her mind. She would rather die than agree to the Evil Dragon's demands.
"Absolutely not!" Elsa's voice trembled as she spoke.
The goblin turned back to ask its master for instructions.
"ROAR—"
"Twenty Silver Coins."
"I—my ideal is to pursue the truth of Magic! I-I would never stoop to colluding with an Evil Dragon."
"ROAR—"
"Twenty-Five Silver Coins."
"Serving the great Ancient Red Dragon is a vital step toward the truth of Magic!"
A moment later, a subordinate Contract appeared before Elsa.
The terms were even better than she had imagined. She'd been expecting a slave contract.
Violating the Contract wasn't life-threatening; there were only financial penalties.
'This Red Dragon is more humane than many of the wolves in sheep's clothing you find in those shady Mage Towers!'
After signing the Contract, she could use its Magic to communicate with Zog telepathically.
She watched as Zog suddenly shrank to a height of two meters, presumably using some kind of size-altering treasure.
He then dragged a treasure chest out of the cave and gave it a slap. The chest opened its large mouth, revealing Sharp Fangs and a tongue.
'Is he using a Treasure Chest Monster as a storage box?'
Elsa's face was a mask of shock.
Zog reached his claw in, rummaged around for a moment, and pulled out a small gadget, tossing it to Elsa.
She caught it and looked. It wasn't one of the Magic Items; it was just an object made of two hemispheres joined together, with a string tied around the middle. It looked vaguely familiar.
"Your job is to make this toy trigger an Illusion," Zog's voice echoed in her mind, surprisingly pleasant. "I call it a Yo-Yo."