MC, Kali, and Autumn's family are all from the continent that isn't the HH continent. This is where the colonization of the HH continent came from, so you could see that continent as that world's Europe.
The HH Continent, the continent only Elves are found on and where they evolved is where the game takes place. Long story short, 300 years ago Humans (crusaders) moved in and declared all Elves to be slaves, but Human's have never been slaves before. You could assume the God in this world, or the Scripture, or whatever, said "All humans are equal". Crusaders sort of found a loophole with Elves. So all Elves are now basically treated as pets. What happens when your cat or dog roams the streets without a collar? It could be picked up, and you could never see it again.
Only 30 years ago did Elves get rights, heavily influenced by Autumn's father. They have the basic rights, like sleep, food, shelter, etc. But since all Elves are slaves, and there's no way to not be a slave, if you have no owner, that means, well, you need an owner. Someone is going to have to take you, be it a person, or the government. Plus, if you find a random Elf with no claim, that's like, a free $500 right there at minimum if you sell her.
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Exports of Elves are likely illegal, there's money in Elves, but things happen. Elves do get around somehow. So they're likely all around the world, just not enough to be noticed. Everyone in the world knows of Elves, just like everyone knows Iceland exists, but they don't really bother with looking for Elves or caring about them in any sort of way, a second thought is never really given. To the rest of the world, it's not even a problem.
But that leaves the rest of the world to have their eyes open. Elves aren't on TV, in shows, etc. Well, maybe rarely. But most people have no exposure to Elves. Based on the way "most people" see Elves is how Elves are going to be seen. For example, if someone were to step foot on another continent with a camera pointed to them, millions watching, and the Elf was a "Friend" then people would think "Elves are cool! I want to meet one!". Which will spiral to "Wait, Elves are slaves? Fuck that." But if the first impression was instead the Elf is a "Slave" people will likely begin to think "Where can I buy one?" instead.