"Enough joking around, Rad, Rudeus. Did you see the notice I left at the guild?"
Paul dropped his clownish act, his tone turning serious.
He had deliberately made that fuss to quickly close the distance with the sons he had not seen for a year, lest their reunion after so long leave them feeling estranged instead.
Now that he had laid enough groundwork, it was time to get to the point.
"No!"
Radeus and Rudeus both shook their heads.
"We took a smuggling ship from the Demon Continent to Millis, and then we were taken away. We never had time to check the Adventurers' Guild in Zant Port."
Rudeus spread his hands toward Paul as he explained.
Paul froze for a moment.
A smuggling ship?
He had not expected that even his two highly capable sons would have been forced to take a smuggling ship to get here.
Paul fell silent for a while, but his mind began racing uncontrollably.
Life on the Demon Continent must have been terribly hard, right?
Had anyone bullied them? Though with Rujierd accompanying them, that probably hadn't happened.
Then had they been sleeping rough all this time, never knowing where their next meal would come from?
The Demon Continent was overrun with monsters, a place even adventurers considered off-limits. How had the two of them survived?
Paul's eyes could not help growing damp, and his nose stung.
No matter how talented the two were, they were still only children. How much had they suffered along the way?
Seeing Paul suddenly fall silent with his eyes reddening, Radeus and Rudeus exchanged a glance, utterly baffled as to what was going on.
An overactive imagination truly was the deadliest thing!
"In that case, I'd like to hear about your experiences on the Demon Continent. Your dad's