The senior’s well-defined lips formed an arc, and the words that came out weren’t the answer I wanted.

“Where has my junior gone, who always smiled brightly at me?”

Do I look like I’m in the mood to smile right now? Huh?

Thanks to the senior who indirectly pointed out that my expression had hardened, I regained a bit of composure and answered with my usual smile.

“The junior who used to smile well at you has gone on a journey.”

“Why? Because I didn’t act according to that junior’s intentions?”

But my smile froze in place.

“I’m not trying to argue about this.”

The senior waved his hand lightly in front of my eyes, and only then did I start breathing again after holding my breath for a moment.

“When I first came to this world, I felt very strange.”

“……”

“It’s hard to explain, but it felt like the shackles that had been placed on me were disappearing?”

It was vague, but I felt like I understood what he meant.

“The obsessive thought that ‘I should be like this,’ which I had never been aware of before, vanished like bubbles.”

This was like an actor who had been giving scripted responses breaking away from that role.

“At that time, I felt like I had gained true freedom.”

He said he had escaped from the demanding position of Crown Prince and gained a new life where he could do as he pleased.

The senior talking like this truly seemed unburdened. Then his gaze turned to me.

“I don’t know what others might have said, but when we all learned of your existence, our reactions were the same.”

I want to possess you.

The quietly added remark sent a shiver down my spine.

“I came here because I want to monopolize you.”

The tip of the senior’s finger tapped the tip of my finger.

“Just in case, I left half of the book that could be the key there, but to think that you could be summoned through another book, a novel.”

His neat lips twisted slightly.

“After finally arriving by your side and working hard to capture your heart, the emptiness I felt when you disappeared one day…”

As the senior shook his head from side to side, his black hair swayed. Hair that would have originally been silver, with a fine texture.

“At first, I thought it was a simple disappearance, but I realized when I saw the book. That you had been called by them.”

The senior’s voice grew increasingly moist.

“You didn’t come back for so long, I wanted to go and bring you back.”

“……”

“I missed you.”

“Why?”

To the Crown Prince, I’m not the female protagonist, nor do I have the influence that comes with being the author, right?

Is there perhaps a hidden “I want to kill you” before that sentence?

How dare you summon me, who lived as the Crown Prince, all the way here?

The original Crown Prince wouldn’t have thought this way, but now I don’t know anymore.

So, you’re trying to harm me…

“Because I like you.”

…or not?

Wait, how can you come at me like this without any warning?

“At first, I was curious because you were the author. When I actually met you, as if the spell had been broken, you no longer held any meaning for me.”

A subtle mix of disappointment and relief settled in my chest. But I tensed up again at what followed.

“Instead, as we spent time together, new feelings sprouted.”

A faint smile hung on the senior’s pink lips.

“By attending classes in the same space and eating meals together, I had the chance to get to know you.”

As I pondered what kind of being you were, with unknown gender and age, these thoughts gradually became concrete, and new feelings accumulated.

The senior calmly expressed his emotions in a low voice tinged with laughter.

“Entirely, my own.”

Liking you is completely my own will.

Even with these affectionate words added, I didn’t respond.

From the beginning, I had only maintained a physical relationship with the senior. I didn’t want his genuine feelings for me.

If you asked whether I had no feelings for the senior at all, that wasn’t the case either.

Always polite and kind, weak to the weak and strong to the strong, taking on difficult tasks – he was the type to impress others.

The more I got to know the senior, the more I thought that not only his appearance but also his personality resembled the Crown Prince.

“This is what I was worried about.”

The senior smiled bitterly.

“That after you went there, you would no longer have any affection for me.”

“It’s not because you’re the Crown Prince, senior.”

I hastily replied, fearing the other might misunderstand.

“As expected, my junior is kind. You’re worried that I might be struggling with my identity, right?”

Kind, you say? Is that something to say to the person who made you clash with the villainous Chancellor and the Sword Master Knight Commander?

“What I was worried about was something else. Since there are many attractive people there, I thought you might not find me appealing after coming back.”

This was exactly the kind of thing the Crown Prince would say. Though it wasn’t written in the book.

No, is the person sitting in front of me really the Crown Prince? Hasn’t he become someone different from the one I knew?

He’s not doing anything that matches my predictions.

Ah, I don’t know.

“I wanted to go and bring you back, but I couldn’t tell if you weren’t coming because you liked it there or because you couldn’t come, and…”

The senior took a moment to compose himself.

“…I don’t have the key to go back there anymore.”

If only I had the key…

“Does that mean you know how to get there?”

“Yes.”

The senior’s answer came immediately to my question, but that moment, which wasn’t even a second, felt incredibly long to me.

Before I could ask “how,” he added one more thing.

“Would you like to go back together?”

All surrounding noise was blocked out, and I could only hear the senior’s voice.

Go? Go? Go…?

As if captivated by that single word, I stared blankly at him.

It was only when a green leaf, shaken by the wind, brushed against my cheek that I came back to my senses.

“Can we… go?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“The conditions are the same. You need to have the key to the world you want to go to and pass through the door.”

It’s a method I know well.

“But why?”

“Because I don’t have the key.”

If he’s a person from that side, shouldn’t his mere existence be enough to serve as a key?

As if reading my doubt, the senior smiled gently.

“You see, I’ve become half a person of this world.”