Story sequence
In the web-novel epilogue, Rimuru reaches the former-life world and the moment after Satoru Mikami's attack. Ciel restores the body and supports it with a parallel existence carrying Rimuru's information.
The main Rimuru does not abandon Tempest. The human Satoru can continue in Japan while connected to the memories that make the otherworld journey tellable.
Satoru later explains the experience to Tamura as the story of being reincarnated as a slime. The circular narration is the clear ancestor of the more elaborated Earth-side material in light-novel Volume 23.
Because the final light novel also returns to Japan but adds different creator-era and Shizu-related context, the archive keeps both records instead of calling one a summary of the other.
Motivations
- Rimuru wants to repair his original body's fate without giving up the identity and nation created after reincarnation.
- The epilogue wants to turn the series title into the story Satoru can literally tell.
Outcome
Satoru awakens in Japan through a parallel existence while Rimuru continues in the other world.
Consequences
- Former-life Earth and the Cardinal World become explicitly reachable across time and dimensions.
- The ending is not a dream reset; both continuations remain meaningful.
This is the specific older ending many readers mean when they say Rimuru returned to his past life, and it should not be confused with every detail of Volume 23.