"Mage, huh."
"You are absolutely the strangest smith I've ever met."
Hephaestus teased him with a smile.
Rayleigh himself did not really feel that way.
After all, he was completely different from what this world traditionally considered a smith.
In this world, a smith generally meant a blacksmith.
But Rayleigh's true nature was not that of a swordsmith.
He was a Shinigami.
It was only that he also happened to be the creator of Zanpakutō.
...
'So this was Level 4.'
Both the quality and quantity of his Reiatsu had undergone a massive leap.
Compared to when he was Level 3, the difference was like a river and a waterfall.
With this, he should be able to freely use every Kidō below number ninety.
And that was not all.
The current him should also be capable of forging even stronger Zanpakutō, granting them more powerful names.
He could hardly wait to test his current strength!
But before that... he needed to go home first.
After leaving Babel, Rayleigh headed straight for his home in this world.
He pushed open the door and stepped lightly inside.
The house's special structure, built for Alfia's sake, completely isolated it from the outside world.
No matter how noisy the street outside became, none of that sound would enter the house.
Rayleigh looked around the first floor.
He did not see the figure he had been missing.
So he climbed the stairs and went to the attic.
Passing through the reading room, Rayleigh arrived at Alfia's bedroom.
And there, he saw the woman named Alfia sitting in a chair, her posture relaxed as her head rested tilted against the window.
She held a book in her arms.
Rayleigh glanced at it and noticed there was no title.
Seeing how relaxed she looked, Rayleigh could roughly tell that her physical condition should have improved somewhat.
Otherwise, she would not have fallen asleep so peacefully.
When the two of them had first begun living under the same roof, he often found her unable to sleep because of the torment of her illness, or waking in pain after finally managing to drift off.
Even the strongest adventurer was helpless against an enemy she could not touch.
Seeing her like this now made Rayleigh genuinely happy.
His efforts, and Alfia's own endurance, had not been wasted.
After reaching Level 4, his mastery over Kaidō had taken another step forward.
He reached out with one hand and directly gathered Reishi into his palm. Then, by altering the nature of those Reishi, he infused the power of Kaidō into the woman's body.
Slowly, gently.
To Alfia, the feeling was no different from sunlight spilling over her skin.
Even so, she still woke up.... sharply.
Then she immediately noticed the presence beside her, a presence so familiar and reassuring that it put her at ease.
"You're back?"
Alfia blurted out those words.
Rayleigh froze.
Because that sounded far too much like something a wife at home would say to her husband returning from a journey!
After a brief daze, Rayleigh immediately nodded and said, "Mm. I'm back. Everything went smoothly."
"I see. That's good."
"Mm."
"Were you watching me sleep just now?"
"Sorry." Rayleigh did not deny it.
Instead, he admitted it openly, with a smile on his face.
Alfia glanced at him and did not continue pressing the matter. Instead, she said, "While you were gone, I spent most of my time sleeping... Ah, no. Never mind. Forget what I just said."
'What did that mean?'
Rayleigh felt something stir in his heart.
"Hm?"
Suddenly, Alfia's mismatched eyes fixed on him without moving, her gaze looking extremely serious.
"You leveled up?"
"As expected of you. How did you notice?" Rayleigh asked in some surprise.
Alfia replied, "The nature of your magic changed. More than that, the greater difference is your expression. Someone confident in their own strength naturally gives off a calm, composed air."
"Do I?"
Rayleigh himself could not sense what Alfia was talking about.
But he quickly understood.
Because he thought of the cheat king. (Ichigo)
Before unlocking his cheat, the gap between the cheat king and Aizen had been impossible to cross.
When Aizen approached, he frantically retreated, his face full of panic, cold sweat pouring down his body.
Even the hand gripping his sword trembled.
In the face of Aizen's verbal attacks, he had been powerless to refute him.
But after unlocking his cheat and obtaining power greater than Aizen's, he became an entirely different person in an instant.
When faced with Aizen's gaze, he no longer dodged.
When attacked, he blocked with one hand, displaying complete ease.
When faced with a Level 90 Kidō from Hōgyoku-Aizen, he waved it away with one hand as casually as brushing off dust.
And when Aizen once again tried to overwhelm him with words, the cheat king directly said, 'I've heard enough of your reasoning.'
That was the change strength brought.
Although Rayleigh did not think he had already reached that cheat king's absurd level of strength, he was indeed still in the swollen-confidence phase that came after a sudden surge in power.
This level-up was different from the calm ones before.
He could clearly feel his Reiatsu growing stronger, to the point where it even gave him a faint illusion of being omnipotent.
"Sorry, Alfia. Could you keep me company for a bit?"
After realizing his own state of mind, Rayleigh wanted Alfia to beat him awake.
The two of them went to the underground training ground together.
Rayleigh warmed up.
Alfia, on the other hand, simply stood there with her usual graceful composure.
The level gap between them was enormous, so it was only natural that he was not being taken seriously.
Even so, Rayleigh wanted to give Alfia a little surprise.
"Begin."
Alfia opened her mouth and gave the signal.
In the next second, Rayleigh had already made his move.
He opened both hands toward the front, his Reiatsu surging violently.
A terrifying Reishi reaction gathered between his palms, forming a massive sphere of Kidō light.
"I'm going all in from the start!"
"Hadō #88: Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō!"
Rayleigh decisively fired the number eighty-eight Hadō with incantation abandonment.
A massive beam of light over six meters in diameter roared out, swallowing his entire field of vision.
The ground along its path instantly caved in under the attack, leaving a deep scar carved across the training field.
The enormous cannon blast descended in a straight line.
"Silentium Eden."
However, when that terrifying beam arrived in front of Alfia, it was stopped by an invisible barrier.
It even began to break apart, returning to the air itself.
Silent Garden.
An enchantment magic.
A spell that could nullify magical attacks.
Its flaw was that it also weakened attacks from inside the barrier, meaning Alfia's own magical power would be greatly reduced as well.
'Even number eighty-eight doesn't work, huh.'
The corner of Rayleigh's mouth lifted.
Not only did he show no discouragement at all, he actually looked a little excited!
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