Chapter 174: The Acceptable Range
And who should the elves blame for that?
Themselves, of course. Specifically, their leaders.
Though, if Riley wanted to be extremely particular, it would only be fair to admit that this meeting was also thanks to a few well-placed tricks by one particularly cunning draconic family.
Which was why Lord Arlen’s yapping only sounded pitiful to Riley.
Demands? Please.
If the man had better ground to stand on, he likely wouldn’t need to rely on so many pointless words and zero facts.
Apparently, Riley wasn’t wrong in finding the whole scenario odd.
Because really, where did they even get the confidence to storm into the MBE and shout about ’detained kin’ when there wasn’t a single missing name on their most recent record?
Their own reports, mind you. The ones they fudged themselves.
And then there was the bigger mystery:
How did the elves leap from losing the Moonveil Codex to claiming illegal detention of their so-called missing people, who technically weren’t even missing to begin with?
Well, short answer—they didn’t.
Or at least, they couldn’t have jumped the gun on their own.
In fact, Riley was fairly certain that even now, Lord Arlen Elowen wasn’t entirely sure what he was shouting about.
It took a while to get up to speed on what really happened after they were rescued, but the consensus among Lord Karion, Lady Cirila, and Kael was simple: there was no way to hide the existence of the victims for long.
Even if they had appeared at the MBE lobby during quieter hours, giving them a brief window before the media frenzy started, a total cover-up was impossible.
Why?
Because of the sheer number of victims.
It wasn’t just elves.
Kael said there were multiple floors in that godforsaken dungeon, and Riley blurted out that there were other branches based on what he had heard.
So, just how big was this entire operation?!
Definitely bigger than expected.
There were beast-kin, goblins, dwarves, treants, dryads, fairies, and other races that had all filed proper reports for their missing people.
For a single rescue, the list was so extensive that they needed to establish an entire task force specifically for this purpose.
Everyone was left asking the same questions:
How come no one noticed such widespread kidnapping?
And with that many missing, was there really no pattern?
Well, the absence of a pattern was also telling. Riley sat back in his shimmering bubble as he thought about what the others discovered while he was unconscious.
Their best guess was that the cover-up had worked for so long due to several factors.
The stark differences in the victims’ profiles, the scattered timing of each kidnapping, and several diabolical "coincidences" tied to population data all worked together to mask the truth.
It may not have been immediately apparent at first glance. After all, the abductions didn’t target just one race. It was as if someone had intentionally picked representatives from every kind. In this way, the typically loud and defensive leaders wouldn’t think their people were being singled out. In fact, it seemed that most didn’t even think there was a problem with having missing kin.
It looked too statistically unremarkable.
In short, it was a well-thought-out crime.
After interviewing the rescued victims, they also realized another disturbing detail: the enormous variation in how long each person had been missing.
One man claimed he had been counting the days and estimated nearly three years had passed. Another said he had only been gone for a few months. Some, only days.
That randomness made it harder to detect a pattern—and easier to dismiss each case as an isolated event, especially when reported separately like that and over a longer period of time.
However, what bothered Riley the most was the chilling consistency in the numbers.
Every year, the total number of missing individuals across the races somehow stayed within what officials considered an "acceptable range."
Acceptable.
He could almost hear the word echoing in his head, and it made him sick.
But when he thought about it, the logic behind that number made twisted sense.
Different magical races lived very different lives. Reclusive beings like dragons or other legendary beasts could vanish for decades without anyone thinking twice. If a hermit didn’t show up for fifty years, well, most would assume they were hibernating, meditating, or sulking in a cave somewhere.
But for pack creatures—wolves, goblins, certain beast-kin—disappearance was noticed immediately. Missing even a single member could cause alarm within days. And sure enough, they had made up the majority of reports received over the last few years.
And that was exactly the pattern emerging now.
The so-called "acceptable range" was maintained throughout the years, so no one noticed any unusual or concerning spikes.
Then again, that was also assuming they reported everything properly. Because just look at both the dragons and the elves.
When Riley first heard this, his stomach turned cold. He couldn’t help but think of dragons. Particularly, Orien.
Just how many dragons might have disappeared over the centuries, quietly marked as unaccounted for in their records?
But they said there were ways to determine if elders were still alive even if they didn’t report, right?
Was it accurate? Also, would it even take into account the fact that they could be detained and suffering?
He wanted to ask Kael back then, but Lady Cirila’s calm voice interrupted his thoughts.
"The rescued victims," she began, "especially those who had been gone for years, were desperate to return home. Many didn’t even want to stay for questioning."
Apparently, if not for fear that it could happen again, most would have run right out of the MBE.
Which was why, as predicted, they would simply be unable to keep the whole thing under wraps.
Some witnesses had already seen the rescued crowds arriving. While they didn’t run to the press, most mentioned it here and there, and by word of mouth, people began coming to the MBE asking for news about their missing relatives.
And because those names had been properly filed, it had been difficult for anyone under oath to deny their existence.
In the end, the Dravaryns were sure that the whole thing would blow up and eventually reach the ears of a few despicable individuals.
So why not guide the spread of the news to achieve the results they preferred?