Captain Garundel of the Royal Castle Guard and his adjutant Payalka had come to the scene where a suspicious Humanita had reportedly been arrested.

  The suspect himself had been taken away by the royal brothers, who'd requested that the matter be kept as quiet as possible, but he felt he couldn't fulfill his duties as head of security without at least investigating the scene of the incident.

  "Here?"

  "Yes. According to reports, he appeared suddenly from seemingly nowhere."

  Indeed, it was the middle of a long corridor.

  At the time, court officials had been working in rooms along the corridor, making it hard to believe he'd been hiding in one of them.

  As for entering through a window, this was the second floor and the outside guards had no witness accounts.

  "He couldn't have appeared from nothing."

  "I asked the mages to investigate, but they said there were no traces of magical power."

  "Right. As if there'd be a door in empty space or— yes, yes, something like thaaaat?!"

  "Captain?"

  Payalka had been mentally sighing, wondering what foolish thing he was saying now, but when she saw what appeared before his gaze, she too gasped.

  CREEEEAK.

  A door appeared where there'd been nothing, and as it opened with a sound, a head poked out from within.

  "Ah, hello there, Mr. Garundel, Ms. Payalka. Sorry for the trouble earlier—"

  "Stop greeting people so casually! Close it quickly!"

  SLAM.

  They heard the King's Brother's flustered voice from within the door, and the Humanita man was dragged inside. and after the sound of the door closing, only empty space remained once more.

  "Gy... GYAAAAAAAH!"

  "WAAAAAAAH!"

  The guard captain and his adjutant's screams harmonized magnificently as they echoed through the corridor, but the guards behind them had no way to stop them.

  ...More than anything, they themselves wanted to scream.

  In the reception room, Norgaar, who'd hastily dragged Amashiro in and closed the door, couldn't hide his irritation.

  "What was that just now?!"

  "A door?"

  "I know that! Who's the idiot who carelessly opens a door that suddenly appears—"

  "Well, I felt like it appeared in response to my call.

  I thought I might be able to return to Earth through that door."

  "No way that's..."

  "But Father, why did that door connect to the guard captain's location?"

  "If I knew that, I wouldn't be struggling... Hm? Wait?"

  Come to think of it, when he'd said "Iftah Ya Simsim" earlier, he'd only concentrated on "opening the door" and hadn't thought about where to connect it.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Like how some apps restore the previous state when you reopen them after closing... could it be that if you don't specify a location, it connects to the last place it was opened?

  Thinking this, Amashiro tried chanting again, this time with a slight variation:

  "Yeollyeola chamkkae (Open, Sesame)."

  The same spell, but this time in Korean, while strongly concentrating on "connect to my apartment."

  "You summoned it again? Stop teasing poor Garundel and the others."

  Seeing the same door appear, Norgaar's face said he was exasperated, but—

  "No, this one's different from before... Probably.

  Norgaar, just to be safe, stay back."

  "What? Suddenly. You opened the last door without hesitation."

  "If your 'previous life self' is beyond the door..."

  Instantly, Rashion and the others froze.

  "Father? Surely not..."

  "The conditions for activating thaumaturgy have already passed... Father?"

  "Well, we won't know anything unless we open it. Anyway, everyone stay back.

  Ready? I'm opening it."

  This time, the door opened without a sound.

  "This is... ah, just as I thought."

  Beyond the door, the view of Amashiro's apartment spread out.

  "Let me see... where in the apartment is this... wait, the wall closet?"

  Indeed, Amashiro's memory retained up to the point just before waking up here—trying to put the box of treats in the wall closet.

  However, what happened after that had been cleanly erased, as if neatly cut away.

  But...

  "Unbelievable... it really is Father's residence."

  Rashion's voice, suddenly standing behind Amashiro and unable to hide his surprise, brought Amashiro back to his senses.

  While it was a spacious apartment for living alone, it certainly wasn't on a scale that could be called a "residence," Amashiro thought with a wry smile before saying to Rashion:

  "I told you to stay back... Well, you're not over there, so I suppose it's fine.

  Perfect timing. Can you hold the door?

  It seems to be my apartment, but I'd be in trouble if the door closed while I was over there and I couldn't return.

  Unlike a certain heartless son, I'd like to properly exchange farewells before parting."

  "You certainly say things...

  Understood. I may not look it, but I'm confident in my strength, so I'll hold it firmly."

  "With that body, who'd believe you lack strength—"

  The moment Amashiro stepped through the door while laughing, the door didn't just close—it vanished like mist, and Rashion was grasping at empty air.

  "F-Father?"

  "Whoa there."

  The moment he crossed through the door, Amashiro felt like something pushed him and stumbled, but managed to steady himself.

  "Now, Rashion, just because I made a sarcastic remark, pushing your father... Rashion?"

  He turned around, but there was only the open wall closet's contents.

  "Huh? Rashion? I told you to hold the door... Rashion? Can't you hear me? Hellooo?"

  No answer.

  The connection to the other world seemed to have been severed by the wall closet door.

  "What's going on... Anyway, let me try opening the door again, hm?"

  Rub.

  The cat Isha rubbed against Amashiro's feet.

  Come to think of it, how many hours had passed over there?

  His smartphone, which served as a clock, was out of service there so he couldn't rely on the time display... and it had been confiscated, so he hadn't had much chance to check the time. But probably 5 or 6 hours had passed?

  "Sorry, you almost missed dinner too.

  Ah, the sushi I bought earlier... I wonder if it's spoiled? Ah, what a waste...

  Huh? What time?"

  Thinking it must be well past midnight, he looked at the wall clock, but the hands hadn't even reached ten o'clock yet.

  He knew time flowed differently between there and Earth, so he checked his smartphone's date thinking perhaps a night had passed, but it hadn't changed. Thinking he might have mistaken the date, he remembered the sushi receipt and checked—same date.

  Moreover, less than an hour had passed since the purchase time printed on the receipt.

  "What is this... Could it be...?"

  He'd considered the possibility that the two planets existed in different time zones, but could it be that time over there flowed many times faster than on Earth?

  "If that's the case, while I'm here, over there...?"

  With a serious expression, Amashiro reached for the closet doorknob.

  "What happened, Your Majesty? Where's Father?"

  Norgaar and Isha approached Rashion, who stood dumbfounded facing the empty space where the door had vanished.

  "I don't know. I was holding the door firmly, but sudden—"

  "Hey! Rashion! Isha!"

  "FGYAAAAH!"

  The royal couple and Norgaar, who'd been worriedly staring at where the door had been, had their wits scared out of them by Amashiro's voice emerging from a door that appeared behind them. The fur on their backs and tails stood completely on end, and their tails—standing pin-straight—looked twice their normal size, all puffed up.

  Isha's legs even gave out, and she barely avoided falling on her rear by weakly clinging to Rashion's arm.

  "Wh-wh-wh-what was that all of a sudden?! Don't startle us like that!"

  "S-sorry. But why were you all standing there?"

  "You disappeared just moments ago, so we were worried about what happened!"

  "Huh?"

  "What?"

  "Eh?"

  "Father?"

  RIP.

  While the confused adults floundered, unable to grasp the situation, Princess Asha was silently tearing open the seal of a treat stick.