The Dragon Lord's Aide Wants to Quit [BL] Chapter 419: Standard Distribution

Kael had been skeptical from the moment they arrived in front of what his twig insistently referred to as an inconspicuous door.

In the golden dragon’s opinion, however, there was nothing inconspicuous about it.

The thing simply looked shabby. Not to mention flimsy enough that if he were to blow even the gentlest breeze in its direction, that poor excuse of a door would likely end up blown off its hinges.

Ironically, they were quite the opposite of said door. Even concealed beneath glamour, their group still looked suspicious enough that anyone would’ve immediately become concerned had they actually been visible. Thugs wearing suits could never be good news.

Though in Riley’s opinion, what people really needed to mind wasn’t their towering builds but the expression currently worn by their most hot-headed member.

Standing by the roadside, Kael stared down at the basement entrance with a visible grimace, his face practically screaming,

Naturally, the black dragon thought to himself,

But as if sensing shameless thoughts on the ex-mortal’s mind, Kael automatically returned his gaze.

Still, despite Kael’s obvious displeasure, the golden guy actually kept his complaints to himself.

Mostly.

And that was because he had already been informed that they needed this human’s assistance.

To be fair, Kurt had proven himself before.

The first time they needed to track the elves, the young man had managed to accomplish something that many mana-reliant investigators would’ve struggled with. That alone was enough to earn at least a little credibility in Kael’s eyes.

Not much.

But some.

If only he would stop flinching every time someone spoke to him, then Riley, who did feel a sense of guilt in involving a rather defenseless human in this, could’ve felt a little less bothered.

__

Beeping and frantic keyboard clacking filled the tiny room, which felt even smaller because of the sheer number of screens crammed inside and the three men who absolutely towered over the mousy human occupying it.

"Did we actually manage to stick some of them?" Riley asked casually as if that wasn’t a matter of life and death.

But instead of an actual explanation, he received a raised hand that clearly meant "wait."

The ex-mortal didn’t mind.

He wasn’t particularly knowledgeable in this field, but he knew plenty of people who reacted similarly whenever they became deeply focused on something. Some had been far worse back when he was still studying. In fact, a few seemed to undergo complete personality changes the moment they entered work mode.

Apparently, this initially mousy guy was no different.

Unfortunately, Kael didn’t share the same opinion.

The golden dragon’s eyes immediately narrowed, clearly displeased that his mate had been ignored. Yet before he could say anything, Riley simply placed a hand on his arm and held him back.

"It’s fine. He needs to concentrate—"

The black dragon stopped mid-sentence.

Because every screen in the room had suddenly changed.

Maps.

Dozens of them.

Only then did Kurt finally spin around in his ergonomic chair, looking like he’d seen better days, which was unfortunately understandable.

"Sorry ’bout that," he said, pulling one side of his headset away. "Couldn’t hear you clearly over these. And I couldn’t exactly spare a hand to take them off earlier."

Ah. That really was one thing to get used to since now that he was a dragon, Riley momentarily forgot that humans couldn’t quite hear just as well over that level of noise.

Kurt lowered the headset to his neck before finally facing the three visitors, who were definitely intimidating despite their efforts to hide it.

The young specialist hesitated.

Then he scratched the back of his head.

"Umm... well, I’m not really sure if this is what you were looking for, but it’s what I’ve got."

Riley figured that was fair enough.

After all, Kurt hadn’t exactly been told the entire truth.

Not when trust was still being established.

And certainly not when knowing too much might place him in even greater danger.

As such, only Orryn had come as himself—or rather, as Simon, the identity Kurt already knew. Meanwhile, Riley and Kael were both disguised.

Though to be fair, they hadn’t been expecting much more than tracking information.

Kurt wouldn’t actually have to leave the safety of this building, which had been heavily warded ever since he’d successfully tracked the elves the first time around.

That was precisely why they’d been the ones scattering those trackers in the first place.

Now all Riley could do was hope they had actually landed where they were supposed to.

And not on some migratory bird or wandering beast.

Not that they’d seen many animals in the area.

The repulsive energy surrounding the wyverns was unpleasant enough that even their dark elf allies struggled to tolerate it.

Kurt turned back toward the monitors and pressed a button.

Another overlay immediately spread across the screens.

This time, Riley’s eyes widened.

The technology itself was already quite something to look at after having to deal with scrolls and magical orbs for so long, but it was the implication behind those markings that stole the breath straight from his lungs.

"...Like I said, I don’t know what exactly you’re looking for or how they even pulled it off," Kurt paused, staring at the data. "But whatever it is..."

His gaze swept across the countless monitors.

"...They’re everywhere."

Riley stared.

Then he muttered a curse.

"Fuck."

The wyverns they had tracked were literally everywhere.

As in, if the trackers were accurate, there were even clusters alarmingly close to the Dravaryn Dominion.

Just how fast were those bastards mobilizing?

That was a very valid question.

And one Riley needed answered immediately.

"Is what we’re looking at live?" Riley asked, leaning over the console. "How likely is it that some of these are just inanimate objects? Or maybe random animals?"

"I thought the same thing at first," Kurt admitted.

He clicked through several windows before continuing.

"But birds or beasts don’t normally linger in the same area for extended periods, show consistent movement patterns, walk somewhere, then suddenly appear on the other side of Eryndra, right?"

He frowned.

"What kind of bird would even be capable of that?"

Kurt looked toward the three of them.

Hesitantly.

Knowingly.

Because even an average mortal could tell that kind of movement sounded suspiciously like teleportation.

And magic on that level wasn’t exactly something he felt qualified to comment on.

"Well," he continued, "I wasn’t planning on prying into whatever you guys are dealing with, but I did remove everything that behaved like inanimate objects."

He paused.

"Honestly, I almost removed these too because they looked like outliers."

His cursor swept across dozens upon dozens of markers.

"Then I realized there were so many outliers that they were starting to look more like the standard distribution."

Riley looked back at the screens.

And immediately wanted to scream.

Because those so-called outliers weren’t clustering.

They were branching.

They had to get to them before they could spread out even more.

__

See, that had been Riley’s mindset earlier.

But with the power of hindsight, maybe they really shouldn’t have gone after them.

If so, then they wouldn’t have had to hear the Wyverns’ absurd and stomach-churning plans with their very own ears.