It didn’t look like they were very keen on talking, but then again, Rael wasn’t expecting there to be so much built-up hate in their gazes. It almost made him shed an imaginary tear.

But then again, Rael was not the type of person to really wrack his head over such stuff. Uriel may be his adopted son, but all that made him, in Rael’s eyes, was someone whom he couldn’t kill out of sheer responsibility.

Whether he would take shit from Uriel?

Well...

That was a different story.

"Sit down and tell me everything you’ve been dying to tell me for the last however many years it has been. I’m not a child, and you two are most definitely not children anymore. If you don’t want to talk it out, then I’ll just leave."

Solenne scoffed. "Where did the Rael who used to use force to fix all of his problems go? This is very unlike you."

"Had it been my choice, I would’ve eradicated this whole world upon realizing you’re in it. But because you’re Uriel’s wife, you have a bit more leeway here. But all I’ll say is that if you two don’t sit down and start talking, all that leeway is going to vanish. That includes both of you."

With those words, Rael fell quiet. He knew how it sounded, and he knew very well what the consequences would be. But at the end of the day... Who gives a shit.

Rael was past the point of trying to make up with people he wronged. He tried it, it worked, now since he was gone for so long, he’d need to do it all over again.

No.

He wasn’t doing it.

He didn’t owe anyone anything.

It seemed like he managed to get his point across very well, as just a few seconds later, the two of them sat down on the sofa. They didn’t look very nervous, likely because they knew just how tame Rael usually was.

But for some reason, Uriel was very adamant about using that against him.

"Why did you visit?"

"I wanted to see how much you’ve grown," Rael replied plainly.

Uriel smiled. "Are you sure that’s the real reason?"

He pondered over it for a moment, then shrugged.

"I wanted to judge whether or not Solenne had changed. If she hadn’t, I would’ve killed her on the spot."

Right as Uriel opened his mouth and was about to reply, Rael added:

"For your reference, she’s one of the most vile people in the universe. Because of her, so many people have lost their lives. Because of her, so many people went through experimentation and became her puppets."

"So for you to just sit there and say that she’s the love of your life... It makes me disgusted."

And that was the truth.

Unfiltered truth that Rael had not even tried to hide since the moment he had entered, since these were his thoughts from the beginning.

"Hah... Hahaha. You’re very different from the person I used to know," Uriel said, narrowing his eyes. "I wouldn’t say you’ve changed much. It’s just that I matured past the point of not seeing the obvious. Rael, would you mind if we sparred?"

"No," Rael replied plainly. "Even if you get your power back and use your Laws to the best of your ability, the person that I am now, compared to what you had seen back then, as well as the stats you have now... You would lose in a fraction of a second."

After all, was there any person who could dodge a pocket black hole flying straight at them? Rather, could they even do anything about it?

Of course not.

Even Rael’s parry ability wouldn’t work, since there were just too many things he needed to parry at once.

Welp.

That wasn’t very important.

"Then how can I get you to trust Solenne?" Uriel asked.

"Is that what this is all about?" Rael raised a brow. "I mean, I’m back now, and I won’t be going anywhere. I can gauge Solenne from across the universe. What I want to say is that you don’t need to do anything. Just be here and do whatever you’ve been doing."

Then, he pointed at Solenne.

"As for you, I don’t like you. Though I do expect that, at the very least, you’ll take care of him."

She stared at him for a moment, then nodded. "That’s only natural."

Yep.

That it was.

"Now then, since I said my piece, you can say yours. You in particular, Uriel."

And now he just waited. He thought that Uriel would have a lot of hate built up in his chest, and he wasn’t wrong by any means.

It was just that, now that Rael was in front of him, he couldn’t find the right words to say. Sure, he was angry, but he couldn’t say anything. It was almost like the words just weren’t coming out.

Rael had noticed that as well, but he didn’t help him out. He was old enough to find the rest of the words, or at least, that was what Rael thought. Except for the next couple of minutes, they just stared at each other in silence, not uttering any words.

Rael was disappointed, so he decided to just glance between the two of them for a brief moment, then stand up. No words came then, and none came out even as Rael walked to the door and took his leave.

It was... sad.

Uriel was planning to settle this with a duel.

Did he not know how powerful Rael was?

Did he think he could just deal with him because he shared some of Rael’s power?

It was stupid.

Stupid and sad.

Welp... There’s nothing I can do about that, Rael thought and glanced around. The house was fine, but out of spite, Rael decided to peer into the Premium Shop and buy some sort of protection charm that would ward off any and all intruders.

And of course, right after, Rael merely glanced over in the direction where Gaia was and teleported right away.