Truthfully, the second return felt no different compared to the first one.
It was like waking from a dream, living a life previously unknown, and upon opening his eyes, he had a moment of uncertainty about whether he was in reality or another dream.
Staring at the somewhat familiar ceiling and the somewhat familiar room, Riezel lay quietly for a long time before finally speaking.
"Back, huh…"
As reality gradually settled in, the dream-like sensation receded, fading with the now calm and transparent cube in his mind.
Only then did Riezel silently sit up, canceling the magic he had cast on himself called Veil Breath—a green protective magic that increased the target's resistance to physical and magical attacks.
He had used this magic on himself before the dimensional travel to ensure he had protection and wouldn't completely lose his defense during his journey to another world.
Now that he was back, the magic was still in effect, as if to reassure him that no one had tampered with his body while he was asleep.
Although nothing had happened to his body, it didn't mean his body hadn't changed at all. Whether it was the noticeably stronger power or the subtle, sun-like pulsating fiery breath, everything indicated that he had undergone another transformation, a rebirth of sorts.
In a single day, Riezel had returned with newfound strength.
"Not bad..."
Riezel confirmed once again that Hermit was indeed in the storage space of the Dimensional Magic Cube. With a faint smile, he gazed at the first-class special equipment he had created, renowned as a divine sword in another world.
After stretching his body a bit, Riezel got out of bed.
Having gone through dimensional travel, he had come to understand some things.
For this reason, he wanted to have a good chat with Yui.
===
A day felt like it had passed a long time for Riezel, who had undergone dimensional travel for six months, but for this world, it was quite brief.
At this time, the Frenzel family was still dealing with the aftermath of the War Festival.
For Riezel, the War Festival had been an event from half a year ago, but for the Frenzel family and the people of this world, it was only a couple of days ago.
At this point, the people of Undine were still chatting excitedly about the various battles that had taken place during the festival.
Riezel himself was the hot topic of conversation, with countless people discussing him and recognizing him as a Sword Master and Tactical-Class Magician, marveling at his achievements and strength.
Marquis Phillip Charlier from the royal capital had also been here the day before, acting as a negotiator in hopes of persuading Riezel to return to the royal capital to receive ennoblement from the kingdom.
Demon Swordsman Jill Dardis, who had been wiped out on the spot by Riezel's Decomposition Magic, was now nothing but a name.
However, the defeat at the War Festival and the incident caused by the Demon Swordsman had successfully caused Alderman, the former head of the Frenzel family and Yuri's father, to lose his composure.
At this moment, he was still sulking and hadn't come out of his room yet.
Under these circumstances, Riezel had already given Yuri a heads-up, so after a day, when he came out of his room, no one at the Frenzel residence found his appearance particularly strange.
As Riezel walked through the hallway, no one seemed surprised by his presence.
"Lord Riezel."
"Sir Brynhart."
Like before, the knights and servants passing by greeted Riezel with respect, bowing their heads as soon as they saw him.
Riezel had finally grown accustomed to this and no longer felt as unnatural or uneasy about it as he once did.
After all, during his six months in the world of Demon Slayer as the head instructor of the Demon Slayer Corps and an honored guest of the Ubuyashiki family, he had been treated with such respect wherever he went.
Over time, he had gotten used to it and no longer felt any inexplicable feelings about it.
Riezel nodded to those who greeted him as he made his way to Yuri's office.
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
After walking for a while, Riezel finally arrived at the office door and knocked on it three times.
"Come in."
Yuri's voice immediately came from inside the door without even asking who it was. Her tone suggested she probably thought the visitor was a subordinate coming to report on the War Festival's follow-up work.
Riezel smiled and pushed the door open, stepping into the office.
As soon as he opened the door, he saw Yuri sitting at a rather luxurious desk, holding a piece of parchment and seemingly reviewing some documents without even lifting her head.
Marilyn, standing beside Yuri, greeted Riezel as he entered.
"Mr. Riezel."
Marilyn's greeting made Yuri lift her head.
"Oh, it's you?"
Yuri put down the parchment, her previously cold face and demeanor melting away like snow to reveal a beautiful smile.
"I thought it was someone coming to report on the War Festival's wrap-up."
"Well, it seems I'm interrupting you then..." Riezel glanced at the pile of parchment on the desk. "Maybe I should come back later."
Riezel turned to leave, but Yuri stopped him.
"It's alright, I was about to take a break anyway."
Upon hearing this, Riezel didn't find anything wrong with Yuri's words, but Marilyn raised an eyebrow slightly.
'A break? When did you ever say you were going to take a break? Before this man entered the room, you had been handling work with a cold face and demeanor. Aside from sleeping, you hadn't considered taking a break even once.'
Although she thought this, Marilyn didn't dare to say it and silently stayed by the side, acting like a statue.
Unfortunately, it seemed Yuri wasn't planning to let her off the hook.
"Marilyn, bring the tea."
Yuri gave the order without turning around.
"...Yes."
Marilyn complied and, as usual, shot a look at Riezel without a trace of emotion.
'What did I do?'
Riezel thought confusedly as he saw Marilyn's gaze on him.
"Okay, have a seat."
Yuri pushed aside the papers on the desk, smiled at Riezel, and gestured for him to sit down.
Seeing this, Riezel had no choice but to sit.
Soon, Marilyn wheeled in a cart from the tea station by the office and served a cup of red tea to both of them.
As the steaming tea was placed in front of Riezel and Yuri, its aroma wafting up, changing their expressions.
Yuri looked relaxed and content.
As for Riezel, his expression was more like he was facing a monstrous flood.
'Seriously... this tea isn't going to be so ridiculously sweet that it melts my tongue, is it?'
As Riezel watched his tea and pondered seriously, Yuri picked up her tea, took a sip, and then spoke up.
"So, how are you? Is your injury better?"
Before the dimensional travel, Riezel had told Yuri that he would stay in his room for a day without the need to eat or drink, leading her to believe he was resting to recover from his injury.
During the War Festival, Riezel's hand had been slashed while trying to protect Yuri from Jill, after all.
However, since Yuri didn't know that Riezel had actually healed his injury with Dia Fratel long ago, she thought he was staying in his room to recover.
As a result, upon seeing Riezel again, Yuri immediately asked about his condition.
"Nah, it's already healed. Nothing serious." Riezel quickly brushed off the topic.
"Um, that's good..." Yuri's expression relaxed a lot, then joked, "If something happened to you, I'd probably feel guilty for the rest of my life."
"You're joking. It was just a slash on the hand, not like it got chopped off." Riezel smiled slightly. "Besides, you're the savior who saved my life to begin with, so if something like that did happen, I'd gladly accept that since it'd be like repaying the favor."
At his words, Yuri gave him a look of anger, clearly not liking his way of thinking.
"Since you're fine, that's good..." Yuri took another sip of her tea before casually asking, "What are you planning to do today? Still practicing swordsmanship in the courtyard like you used to?"
"Nope." Riezel calmly shook his head. "For now, I'll put aside the sword stuff."
Due to mastering the 'Total Concentration - Constant' of the evolved Sun Breathing, it could be said that he was always training, even when he was doing nothing.
As a result, there was no need to specifically practice swordsmanship to improve his status any further.
From now on, he wouldn't need to train as desperately as he had before, and when he practiced swordsmanship, it would likely be to refine his sword techniques or the sword forms of his breathing styles rather than to improve his status.
Moreover, he had also recently gained a lot of insight from top-tier swordsmen in the world of Demon Slayer, so he didn't need to worry about swordsmanship for now.
Even if he wanted to train, it would probably focus on magic, which he had rarely used in the world of Demon Slayer.
Nevertheless, this could also be set aside for now.
Since he had only recently reached Level 6 and his current body was just beginning to adapt, there was no need to rush into magic training.
"Is that so?"
Yuri put down her cup of red tea and smiled.
"In that case, why don't you go check out the library here?"
At her suggestion, Riezel's heart stirred, and even Marilyn beside her seemed to have something to say about it.
Obviously, the 'library' Yuri referred to was no ordinary library.
She talked about the library of the Frenzel family's main residence, which housed the entire collection of swordsmanship and magic books the family had collected since its founding.
Such a precious library, and yet Yuri offered it as casually as if she were inviting someone to check out a book after school.
Riezel knew Yuri was suggesting this for his sake.
After all, from her perspective, he had only recently declared his intention to become a Sword Saint and break away from Jinas's influence. Seeing that he had recovered from his injury, she decided to offer him access to the library to provide some support.
Riezel understood this well, which caused him to look at Yuri with much gentler eyes.
However, he wasn't here for the Frenzel family's library, nor was he here to discuss how to become a Sword Saint with Yuri.
He only wanted to say one thing.
"Yuri, I plan to return to the royal capital."
Yes.
Riezel had changed his mind and intended to return to the royal capital.