Anyone who saw a ferocious dragon nearly forty meters long suddenly shrink into an adorable pocket-sized dragon only a few dozen centimeters tall, effortlessly escaping from hundreds of magical bindings, would find it unbelievable.
"You're Snug? The Flame Dragon Snug?"
"Y-yes, Master Mage," the little creature flapped its tiny wings as it flew in front of William, explaining shyly and fearfully, "When we were born, for some unknown reason, two souls appeared in the same dragon egg. We were abandoned on this continent for countless years before finally falling into a volcano, where we began to hatch."
William grabbed the tiny dragon, bringing it closer for a curious inspection. After a moment, he confirmed that while the creature's body had shrunk, the magic within it was exactly the same as that of the massive fire dragon from before—it hadn't been replaced.
"So, if you two share the same body as twin souls, does that mean I have to sign a contract with both souls to make you mine?"
"Well… uh…"
"Enough with the 'uh' and 'well' nonsense." William impatiently flicked the tiny dragon's forehead. "If you don't agree, I'll just kill you and transfer all your magic into my armor instead."
"N-no, Master! Of course, I'm willing to sign a contract with you… but that stubborn brute is a bit hardheaded."
As soon as the tiny dragon's childish voice finished speaking, a deep and furious voice erupted from its throat. "Damn coward! You disgrace our dragon lineage! One day, I'll devour your soul!"
The tiny dragon smirked and scoffed, "Hmph, you may be the one in charge of combat, but when it comes to knowledge and soul matters, you're no match for me.
If I didn't need your brute strength to deal with magical creatures, I would have swallowed your soul a long time ago.
And let's not forget, it was your idiotic idea to steal the great mage's armor—if it weren't for that, we wouldn't be in this mess!"
William listened with interest as the two distinct voices bickered within the same body. But after a while, he lost interest in their argument.
Twin souls or not, it didn't matter—what mattered was making them submit. And frankly, the tiny dragon was much easier to carry around.
Recalling the rumor that dragons loved shiny things, William decided to test it. "Do you like gold coins?"
The crisp clinking of gold coins interrupted the squabbling.
The moment the golden light flashed, the tiny dragon's eyes locked greedily onto the coins William was casually tossing in his hand. Its childish voice eagerly shouted, "Give me one hundred—no, one thousand gold coins, and I'll serve you for a day, Master Mage!"
"You useless waste! You'd sell yourself to a human for just a thousand gold coins per day?" The other soul roared. "Besides, there's plenty of this useless stuff in the molten lava of the volcano!"
"Idiot," the tiny dragon retorted mockingly. "If you're so capable, then go ahead and extract those shiny treasures from the lava and mint them into beautiful coins. If you can do that, I'll listen to you from now on.
But if you can't, then shut up and let me enjoy these adorable, charming gold coins."
"You…!"
Although the aggressive Snug fell silent, the fact that he had said "just" in his complaint made William realize that both dragon souls were the same—they simply couldn't resist the lure of gold.
With a smirk, William said, "Snug, since you're the one in charge of combat, what do you think is a fair price for your services in a battle?"
"I, I…" Snug hesitated for a long time before deliberately distinguishing himself from the tiny dragon. "That weakling wants a thousand gold coins per day—then I should get at least ten thousand per battle."
Ten thousand gold coins per battle? Was this an attempt at clever negotiation, or just a way to avoid staying by William's side all the time?
Either way, it didn't matter to William. Ten thousand coins was only a ton of gold. Even a hundred battles would only amount to a hundred tons of gold.
Perhaps this planet had no human civilization, and humanoid races like elves hadn't yet developed a trade system—so dragons had never encountered minted gold coins before?
Or maybe this world didn't have a currency system at all, making it easy to bribe these greedy dragon souls with just a few gold coins?
Or perhaps they were simply too afraid of William after he had beaten them into submission?
Whatever the case, William didn't care. All that mattered was that he could use gold—something of little value to him—to secure the service of a dragon proficient in fire magic.
From his storage space, he retrieved exactly ten thousand gold coins and suspended them in the air around the tiny dragon. Looking at the creature, which was already drooling, he said, "Looks like we have a deal."
"Of course, of course, Master Mage! Let's sign the contract right away!"
William materialized the contract using his mental energy and floated it in front of Snug. The greedy dragon skimmed through it and found only one clause displeasing—betrayal meant death.
But under William's watchful and slightly threatening gaze—and unable to give up the fortune in front of him—Snug had no choice but to sign.
The moment the contract was formed, two flaming soul fragments flew into William's consciousness.
From now on, as long as he paid them on time, he could command the Flame Dragon Snug at will.
And he wouldn't even need to transport gold from other planets. From what Snug had said earlier, William knew that the volcano Snug inhabited had plenty of gold—it just couldn't be extracted from the lava.
Even if chunks of raw gold or nuggets could be found, they weren't as visually appealing as shiny, minted coins.
Perhaps William only needed to send a team of engineering robots to mine nearby. Not only would he be able to pay Snug's wages, but even hiring ten dragons wouldn't be an issue.
As for whether to bring Snug back to London, William thought about it and decided against it. With his teleportation ability, he could summon Snug whenever needed.
And by leaving Snug in this self-sustaining ecosystem, he wouldn't have to feed it or pay the daily thousand-coin salary, preventing it from accumulating too much wealth and becoming harder to control.
Having made up his mind, William separated several pieces of Sentinel material from his armor and said to Snug, "Return to your combat form."
The tiny dragon gave William a puzzled look but obediently transformed back into a forty-meter-long dragon.
As soon as it did, the detached Sentinel materials, following William's mental command, flew to the base of Snug's dragon horns and the joints between its wings and body, forming four dark rings that firmly latched onto these areas.
When Snug reverted to its tiny form, the Sentinel materials remained attached in the same positions.
Now, William could not only track Snug at all times but also teleport it to his side whenever necessary.
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