Zog had become a cautious Dragon ever since the Magic Goddess came seeking revenge.
Elsa, of course, hadn't been captured at random.
Illusionists were a rare breed among Mages. Their craft wasn't as practical as offensive Magic, nor was it as profitable as researching Enchantments or Magic Potions. For putting on a mystical act, they couldn't even compete with the Prophetic School. As a result, very few people studied it.
The entire Mage Association had only a few hundred registered Illusionists.
After bribing an insider, Zog had sifted through all of their files.
He couldn't pick anyone too famous or too powerful. It wasn't that he couldn't defeat them, but they were likely to attract a lot of trouble, which was an annoyance for a Dragon.
They also had to specialize in visual illusions, as the Yo-Yo had no use for Illusion Techniques affecting other senses.
A harmonious family was a plus. People like that were easier to control than lone wolves who only had to fend for themselves.
From the remaining list of names, Elsa stood out.
The Association's evaluation of her was, "Her Illusion Technique lacks deceptive power, but its visual appeal is superb."
She also had part-time experience creating stage effects for a theater.
She wasn't a qualified Illusionist, but she was a perfect match for Zog's needs.
Of course, Elsa herself was unaware of all this.
She thought she was just an unlucky soul who had stumbled upon an Evil Dragon. She was currently trying to understand what a "Yo-Yo" was, and worried that he would go back on his promise of Twenty-Five Silver Coins.
Although the servitude Contract was nominally binding on both parties, she wasn't foolish enough to believe that a little bit of Magic would have any effect on an Ancient Red Dragon.
Zog took out a Yo-Yo of his own to demonstrate. Even his shrunken Dragon Claw looked comically large compared to the toy.
He looped the end of the string around his middle finger, and with a flick of his wrist, sent the Yo-Yo spinning down the string to hover in mid-air.
Elsa now understood why it looked familiar. Her brother used to love playing with this kind of toy as a child, throwing it down and watching it automatically retract. She never understood the appeal.
'I can't believe the Evil Dragon's toy is just... a toy.' She was a little disappointed.
'No, wait.' She quickly spotted a difference. 'How come the ball isn't retracting on its own?'
'Doesn't that make it... even more boring?'
'Of course an Evil Dragon can't make a good toy. How could a big, flying lizard with nothing but brute strength possibly understand subtle Human design?'
However, Zog's next moves were beyond anything she could have imagined.
He swung the Yo-Yo forward, looped it over his fingertip, and landed it back on the string. With a flourish of his claws, the Yo-Yo began to dance and flip between the strings.
Elsa's eyes couldn't even follow the Yo-Yo's trajectory.
'It can do that?'
'He's not secretly using Magic just to play with a toy, is he?'
After finishing a dazzling series of tricks, he bound the string and retrieved the Yo-Yo. He said nothing, posing like an expert, and for a moment, even his fearsome Dragon head seemed to have a handsome flair.
Elsa tried to copy him. She held the Yo-Yo in her hand and threw it downwards, but after only two seconds of spinning, it tilted and came to a dead stop, dangling from the string.
'Why?'
Her shocked and bewildered expression sent a thrill of secret satisfaction through Zog.
'Back in the day, I was a Yo-Yo master in elementary school,' he thought. 'Guys like Li Fei and Mike had nothing on me.'
He'd once thought he could become a professional Yo-Yo player. Then he saw videos of actual competitions and suddenly decided that school wasn't so bad after all.
"I need two types of Illusions in total," Zog began. "First, a simple light effect that triggers while the Yo-Yo is spinning. Second, a complex Illusion that triggers after the Yo-Yo completes a specific trajectory. Each Yo-Yo needs to be able to trigger multiple Illusions. Will that be a problem?"
Zog planned to recreate the effects from TV shows and anime, where different tricks could summon different special effects.
'Then I'll develop limited-edition Yo-Yos. Certain tricks will only be possible with specific models. I can sell each one for dozens of Gold Coins.'
After hearing his requirements, Elsa considered them. No one had ever asked her to trigger low-level Illusions in different ways, but it was theoretically possible.
"No problem. It can be done with lingering Runes."
The trajectory of the lingering Runes as they move can form a Magic Array, which in turn triggers a preset Illusion.
"Good. I'll give you a tour of the work environment. Goblin Xin 104 will bring you the project plan with the specific requirements."
"Um, who is Goblin Xin 104?"
"The goblin who was translating earlier. Goblins don't have names, aside from the Chief and the Shaman, so I give them numbers."
"And a 'project plan' is...?"
"It's a detailed breakdown of your work, including trajectory diagrams for the tricks and sketches for the corresponding Illusions."
Elsa was completely baffled. No one had ever given her such specific requirements for Illusion Techniques before.
When she worked part-time at the theater, the director's ideas were always abstract. He loved using obscure jargon, and it took ages of back-and-forth and trial and error to get things right.
'Why do I get the feeling this Dragon is more civilized and advanced than they are?'
'Is he really an Evil Dragon with a long list of crimes?'
Her mind was so full of questions that she followed the Dragon into the goblin cave without a second thought.
Of course, being on guard wouldn't have done her any good.
If a Dragon studying toys was merely strange, then the scene inside the cave completely shattered her worldview.
This wasn't the dark, stinking den full of filth and carcasses that the Minstrels sang about.
On the contrary, it was clean, tidy, and odorless. It was even more orderly than the streets in her hometown. The feeling was... hard to describe, but strange.
The cavern was spacious, over three meters high, with walls reinforced by stonework. Inside were not only goblins, but also Beastmen and Undead.
The two of them, human and Dragon, boarded a cart pulled by a Warg. The goblin driving would stop at intersections, waiting for an Undead up ahead to lower a red flag and raise a green one before proceeding.
Fluorescent Stones were placed at regular intervals for lighting, and signs indicated the routes to various areas.
Not even the major cities in the Kingdom could manage this!
Noticing Elsa's confusion, Zog explained, "As long as their food and housing are taken care of, habits can be changed."
"But... with so many of them, how much could they possibly eat!?"
"They farm their own land and raise their own livestock."
"What?" Elsa thought she must have misheard. "Aren't these creatures supposed to be stupid? I thought they only knew how to plunder."
"Ha, a common misconception. Humans always think they're the only special ones. Goblins and Beastmen are both highly adaptable creatures. They can learn many things in order to survive, provided there's enough pressure."
"And that pressure is?"
"Me."
"..."
Elsa suddenly felt a bit foolish. She'd gotten so caught up in the conversation that she had forgotten she was speaking to an Ancient Dragon.
The view suddenly opened up, and they arrived at a massive underground platform.
Row after row of goblins were gathered here, sitting on either side of several incredibly long tables. They were busy with something in their hands, passing it down to the next person when they were done.
"We're here," Zog said, getting out of the cart. He raised a claw toward the platform with a hint of pride. "Welcome to Yo-Yo Production Line Number 1."
'Production Line?' Another term she'd never heard before. But watching the way the goblins worked, Elsa roughly understood what it meant. The name was quite descriptive.
"Goblins are indeed a bit slow," Zog explained. "They can't learn how to make an entire Yo-Yo, so each one only learns a single step."
Zog then pointed to the other side, at a separate grotto that had been fitted with a handsome door.
"Your workshop-slash-residence. Two hundred square meters, equipped with basic magical implements, exquisitely furnished, with a private bathroom. If you feel hot, just call an Undead over to cool the place down. Don't worry, they don't curse their colleagues."
'This is starting to look more and more like a real job,' Elsa thought.
"Ren 82."
Zog bellowed. A goblin came running over.
"From now on, you are Lady Elsa's assistant. You'll wait outside her door and be on call. If she's satisfied with your work, you'll get an extra piece of lizard meat for dinner. Understood?"
Ren 82 nodded and took up his post outside the grotto door, standing stock-still.
"Now then, get to work."
...
The first magical Yo-Yo was created even more smoothly than Zog had imagined.
Elsa placed the prototype in his claw after only two days.
Her implementation method was highly efficient, too; she didn't need to personally craft each Yo-Yo.
Runic Magic was a bit like programming. Mages would call "functions" from the Magic Goddess, then encapsulate them into a Rune.
Afterward, the task of imprinting the Runes onto the Yo-Yos could be handled by Ordinary goblins, and a Shaman could infuse the Runes with magic.
So, Elsa was only responsible for the design work.
The Rune that produced the spinning light effect was imprinted on the outer casing. It would activate as long as the Yo-Yo was "sleeping," and the light would even dim as the rotation speed decreased.
The Illusion Runes were imprinted on the outer part of the bearing, so they wouldn't be affected by the spinning. It was a clever idea.
Zog examined the Yo-Yo in his hand. While it wasn't as refined as an industrially manufactured one from Earth, its craftsmanship was still excellent. Goblins didn't cut corners.
He began to test it out.
A Sleeper, a Double or Nothing, a flip, then a pop. It was a simple combo now, but back in the day, any kid who could pull it off was the coolest one in their group.
And the moment the trick was completed, an Illusion of a Silver Dragon shot toward the heavens.
"Silver Dragon From Beyond the Heavens isn't a dead trick!"
Zog laughed, a wide, happy laugh.
Elsa watched from the side, astonished. It wasn't because of the Illusion's effect, but because she was seeing a smile on a Dragon's face—a genuine, childlike smile.