Chapter 178: Compensation and Consequences
There was just no helping this guy, was there?
"Yeah, your original plan was to detain the dragon lord for god knows how long," Riley snapped, voice low and sharp. "Sure, maybe I wasn’t part of the original scheme. But when you realized I could be used too, look what you did. Detained me, cursed me, treated me like a tool. Did you forget we are also someone’s children? That we have families?"
"Surprise," he added, loud enough to stun the elves while grinning like a lunatic. "I know, it’s hard to imagine, but even this guy is someone’s family." He gestured his free hand toward Kael to punctuate the point.
Kael’s eyes narrowed, slow and dangerous, but he did nothing more than watch Riley with that unreadable patience. He let the twig finish.
"Oh, and you remember that the same guy—the dragon lord—is needed at the Ministry to keep continental order, right?"
"Of course you do," Riley said to the room and then to himself, answering his own question with exaggerated cheer. His smile was too bright. It made the father and son flinch.
"But of course we don’t matter, as long as you and your wife get your child back," he went on, tone colder now. "And in the end, did you even succeed? No. You tore apart essential resources with lies, you kept people from being rescued, and you endangered countless lives."
"Imagine what could have happened if you had told the truth earlier. More people would have been saved. So what do we do with people who only think of themselves?"
"!!!"
The king barked back, red with fury. "Y-you! You speak so lightly of our pain and our decision!"
"What would you know? Do you know what it’s like to be left without a real choice? Do you think we wanted this?" Lord Arlen even stood up to show his indignation, but what Riley heard about choices just infuriated him.
"Your Majesty," Riley said, leaning back so that his voice filled the space, "considering how your family attempted to take away our right to choose, even to go as far as to use my life in a curse, you’re one to talk about choices."
Riley wanted to clock him to the next life at this point, but thought better of it after forcing himself to think about good things, like retirement funds.
"That was Rhiannon’s decision! That wasn’t even supposed to happen!"
"But still. Since you asked what I knew about this, I’ll tell you that it’s more than you think."
"Did you go into the kidnappers’ lair yourself?"
"No?"
"Well, I did. A human—allegedly the weakest around—went in and almost died rescuing the victims. And yet never once did I think it proper to offer someone else’s child as a shield to save my own skin."
He paused, letting the weight of that hang heavy in the silence.
Now, to be fair, it wasn’t as if Riley never hid behind someone else, but shit, it didn’t even take more than a few minutes before he had to start paying for it dearly!
To think he didn’t even ask the dragon lord to fight the merfolk on his behalf, and yet look at him paying for that one moment with every soul-shattering "honey"!
So how could he not make these bastards pay?!
At this rate, it even looked like he’d pay for that one moment even in his next life, so what death? How could these elves just die and not suffer the consequences of their actions?!
Not to mention all the paperwork that would come with something like that?
Sorry, but no. He just wasn’t planning on dealing with any of that.
Then, in the end, if Riley didn’t think carefully, wouldn’t that just mean he’d be punishing himself?
Most definitely.
Ultimately, it was best to do it this way.
__
Okay, the "best" was highly subjective, and the Elowens definitely had issues with him even breathing after that meeting concluded, but so what?
In the end, didn’t he succeed?
Yeah, he did. Although now, he definitely had to watch his back.
It had been a few days since the confrontation with the elves, and sure enough, the news about Silvara, the elves, and the Codex was all over the place.
"Silvara’s Seclusion Lifted After Artifact Recovery—Ministry to Temporarily Safeguard Moonveil Codex."
Variations of that headline dominated the papers, the media, and even the morning gossip. After all, the articles circulating seemed to purposely leave out the important bits that people were actually curious about.
Like the real duration of this so-called "temporary" arrangement, or why the elves had agreed to let the Ministry oversee one of their most sacred artifacts.
Even the elves themselves were baffled, especially since there was no mention of who really stole the Codex.
Then again, it was all as expected—and exactly as Riley and Kael had ordered.
And honestly? It could have been far worse, Riley thought as he looked over the hard copies of the news clippings while sitting up in bed.
It could have been something like, "Members of the Elowen Royal Family’s Abilities Sealed for 125 Years!" or "The Moonveil Codex, Paid as Compensation to a Human!"
See? It could have been far worse.
But it wasn’t, because Riley didn’t want to deal with any more paperwork involving the elves in what remained of his short human lifespan.
They wanted to change rulers and redo all formalities? Fine, but no one was doing that until he was officially retired—or dead. Whichever came first.
Therefore, the aide, who had no intention of being buried under administrative chaos, chose a list of sanctions that were simple, effective, and incredibly disastrous for the Elowens.
But hey, at least they’d keep their lives, right?!
First, compensation and aid for all kidnapped victims and the bereaved families of those who had died due to the delayed rescue.
Second, public acknowledgment of the MBE’s success in recovering the Moonveil Codex—but without actually returning the artifact to elven hands for the next 125 years.
Third, sealing the magical abilities of all members of House Elowen.
But because Riley was "nice" and only slightly petty (allegedly), he allowed them to choose one adult family member—excluding the Queen—who would retain their abilities for that same 125-year period.
Fourth, the elves would reaffirm and uphold the Accords for the next five centuries.
And fifth, the kidnapped elven children were to be formally educated about what their royal family had done.
Now, one could just imagine King Arlen’s reaction when he heard all of that.
And it wasn’t pretty.