Chapter 177: Reckoning at the Ministry
Awkward silence filled the chamber.
Riley merely shrugged at the mortified elven king, who now looked toward his son as if silently begging for denial—as if looking for any ground he could stand on.
But Rowan said nothing.
Then, in a sudden burst of fury, King Arlen’s hand whipped across his son’s face.
The sharp crack echoed in the room, loud enough to make Riley suck in a breath.
For a moment, he actually considered pulling out a notepad to report the man. Technically, striking someone inside the Ministry was a violation of its laws, even for visiting monarchs.
But then he realized something dangerous—if he started writing that down, he might end up slapping the king himself. That would be a much bigger problem, since he would then have to avoid hypocrisy and report himself.
So instead, he folded his arms and glared.
King Arlen’s chest heaved. "You knew," he seethed at Rowan. "You knew about this and said nothing?"
Rowan didn’t respond. He simply spat blood into a handkerchief.
Riley’s patience finally snapped.
"So, Your Majesty, that’s what you’re furious about?" he asked flatly. "That he didn’t tell you?"
The king turned toward him, face red with rage.
Riley rolled his eyes. "What, if he told you earlier, you’d have figured out a better way to hide everything?"
The room went still.
Kael’s faint smirk didn’t help.
Riley continued before anyone could interrupt. "Clearly, it’s not a good idea for growing minds to be exposed to such terrible role models."
"!!!"
"Y-you! How dare you?!"
"How dare I?" Riley echoed, lifting a brow. He took a deep breath, mostly to stop himself from throwing something.
"Right now, several people owe me their lives. Honestly, I’ve lost count of how many. After being cursed, controlled, and nearly sacrificed, I somehow survived—and then risked my life again for the same people. And yet, the word you think fits me best is ’dare’?"
The king sputtered, but Riley didn’t give him a chance to recover.
"Your Majesty," he said, tone calm but cutting, "you are aware that for the crimes of conspiring against the Ministry, the Dragon Lord, and endangering the entire continent, we’re fully entitled to behead you and your family, right?"
"Y-you can’t—"
"Oh, we can," Riley interrupted. "And it would be completely legal."
"That’s preposterous!" King Arlen snapped, rising from his seat.
"Not according to the laws of this land," Riley shot back, "which you seem to like quoting whenever it benefits you."
The king’s face twisted. "You know why we did it! You know we did it for the children!"
His voice broke halfway through the sentence. For a fleeting second, it almost sounded sincere—genuine desperation beneath the anger.
But sincerity didn’t make stupidity and selfishness forgivable.
For the children, my ass! In truth, he would’ve wanted to scream that, but opted to swallow it for something else instead.
Riley met his gaze, unflinching. "We know," he said quietly. "Which is exactly why it’s worse."
He leaned forward in his seat. "Good for you for caring about your own child. But you seem to have forgotten that your method of saving him was to sacrifice someone else’s son. Someone else’s family. Someone else’s life. And that’s putting it lightly—because you weren’t just willing to trade one life. You were willing to sacrifice everyone else."
"What are you talking about?!" the king shouted. "We were only—"
There were honestly so many ways to tear their arguments apart. He didn’t even need to hear them make the arguments, really.
Yes, their goal sounded noble—rescuing children. See, he even assumed ’children,’ and not just a ’child,’ when he was pretty sure the royals were mostly concerned about their own son.
But even then, it wouldn’t change the fact that in their desperation to rescue the young prince, they’d thrown their wits straight out the window.
Did they seriously think that whoever was kidnapping children while also demanding the dragon lord’s blood would ever be good for the continent, or at the very least, good for them?
And sure, let’s pretend they didn’t go with the blood direction.
Still, their initial plan was to deliberately keep the head of the enforcement agency away from the Ministry and the actual criminals.
In which world did that sound like a good idea?!
Surely they realize that only terrorists would benefit from that!
And Riley was damned sure those monsters wouldn’t have returned the prince even after they fulfilled their end of the bargain. Not only because they were seriously shady, or that he was biased, but also because of Miss Risa’s accounts about the child named Lily.
Maybe deep down, the Elowens thought similarly, because who wouldn’t?
So, unless they were planning to claim collective stupidity and unfitness to rule, they would eventually have to admit to utter selfishness.
Although, with how King Arlen has been reacting, he’d likely talk about parental woes first.
Riley could have forgiven ignorance. If they had truly been unaware of the consequences, maybe he could have seen it differently.
Maybe.
But as rulers of Silvara? What kind of amnesia would it take for them to forget something even a twenty-five-year-old human like him understood?
Even Liam—little, cookie-holding Liam—would’ve known how terrible that reasoning sounded.
And worse, they didn’t just mess up their own affairs—they dragged everyone else into it. Entire families, countless victims, and various races forced inside a lockdown. They were even willing to point fingers at others just so he and Kael would have to go on a wild goose chase!
How many lives did they plan to put on hold for their "righteous cause"?
Sure, maybe they were afraid.
Maybe reporting to the MBE felt dangerous.
But if they were clever enough to stage a heist involving the Codex and Eryndra, then surely they could’ve thought of a covert way to ask for help!
How selfish. Truly.
Even after everything, they had the nerve to act like victims while taking jabs at the very Ministry that had cleaned up their mess.
Riley clicked his tongue softly. "Tsk. Tsk."
He didn’t even try to hide his disgust. Because why should he respect someone like this guy?