While sitting on her lap, Ayuna noticed Liana taking the BloodTri leaves out of a small pouch sitting on the table. 

 

Now, this would have been a normal sight. Sure enough, Liana wouldn’t have carried everything all by herself. She would need something to help her carry all these herbs. 

 

But, what’s really strange about it, though, was the fact that there were a lot of herbs on the table—too many for this little pouch to carry alone.

 

Ayuna’s eyes widened upon seeing this. She had a suspicion as to what this pouch was but decided to ask Liana anyway.

 

She gulped down a saliva, staring right at the pouch. “Liana. What’s that?”

 

Liana, still taking the herbs out of the pouch, stopped her hand. “Oh, this?” She grabbed the pouch and placed it in front of Ayuna. “This is a mini-size magic vault.”

 

“Mini-size magic… vault…?” Ayuna repeated, her curiosity picked.

 

“Yep.” Liana grabbed the pouch and turned it upside down, but… nothing fell off. Ayuna’s eyes widened. Liana smiled and continued, “This pouch is enchanted with the space element magic. Put simply, it has the power to store anything in the void space. Anything… even one with a size bigger than this pouch.”

 

Store anything in the void space? Even one with a size bigger than this pouch? Wasn’t that a space storage!?

 

Ayuna’s heart started beating fast, her eyes sparkling. As she expected, this pouch really was the infamous pocket dimension, space storage, dimensional storage—whatever you want to call it—she’d read about so much in isekai novels!

 

And no, not just in isekai novels, either. She’d actually seen this kind of item in an anime she used to watch in her childhood—Doraemon. It was technically the 4D Pocket! 

 

Her excitement shot through the roof. 

 

Since the moment Ayuna had woken up in this fantasy world, aside from magic, monsters, and dragons, what she truly wanted to see most was the dimensional storage. She’d seen this item in almost all the isekai novels she’d read, so she’d been wondering what it would look like in real life.

 

And now that infamous item was right in front of her!

 

Ayuna’s body started trembling, her eyes glittering like stars. “M-May I..?” She turned her head slightly and looked at Liana with an almost pleading expression.

 

Seeing such a cute expression, Liana started blushing hard again!

 

[+ 10 AP]

 

“G-Go ahead,” Liana replied.

 

Ayuna received the pouch and inspected it curiously. She looked at it in every nook and cranny, stroking it lovingly as if it was her beloved pet. She then, slowly and carefully, put her hand inside the pouch.

 

After her hand went in, she suddenly felt a different sensation inside. It felt kind of weird, like there was nothing around her hand at all. There’s no air, no temperature, nothing. Everything felt void as it should be. It’s a weird feeling but Ayuna didn’t hate it.

 

*Ding!*

 

A notification suddenly rang out followed by the system screen in front of her. On the screen panel were multiple empty slots with only a few already occupied. Of course, those were the BloodTri leaves occupying the slots.

 

Ayuna’s eyes widened in surprise.

 

It seemed like the system recognized this item and even had a function for it. In the game’s term, this would be the inventory function! This was simply amazing!

 

Ayuna couldn’t help but get even more and more excited. Ever since she’d awoken in this world, there had been nothing but surprises. Some she didn’t know about, some she had read about in novels, and some she had seen in the video games. But now, all those things were in reality—the new reality she now lived in. How could she not be excited after all that?

 

“This is amazing.” Ayuna smiled widely, took the herbs out of the pouch, and placed it down on the table. 

 

Liana, finally snapped out of her daze, took the pouch and started taking out the herbs again. “It is, isn’t it? It’s very convenient, especially when I go out gathering stuff.”

 

“Where did you get such an item, Liana?” Ayuna tilted her head. “Don’t tell me you’ve made this as well?”

 

Liana giggled. “I wish I could, but no, I didn’t make it. Or more like I can’t make it. I don’t have the power to do so.”

 

“But you can use magic, Liana. I saw it back in the forest.”

 

Liana’s hands suddenly stopped. Ayuna could feel Liana’s body stiffened for a moment. Silence followed right after. After a while, Liana continued sorting the herbs again. 

 

“You seem quite curious about magic, Ayuna.” Liana sounded stiff and quiet. “For a while now.”

 

Ayuna tilted her head. “Well, I’m curious about everything, really. I don’t remember much, but I do remember magic in the fragments of my memory.”

 

“Yeah, you told me that before. If you don’t mind my asking, could you tell more about these fragments of memory of yours?”

 

Ayuna went silent for a moment, her heart beating faster and faster. She tried her best to keep a calm surface. After losing in thought for a while, she finally spoke. 

 

“It’s just a bunch of random stuff in my head. I can’t find the connection to any of them. It’s just… I don’t know how to say this, but it feels like there is a fog in my head, a very, very thick fog. It’s very blurry, but I can still see the outlines of some things. Those are the random stuff I talked about earlier.”

 

Liana nodded. “I see. I'm starting to understand now.” She finally took out the last of the herbs and pushed the pouch to the side.

 

Ayuna secretly sighed out in relief.

 

That was so freakin close! If she hadn’t come up with anything just in time, she would have been caught. She would have looked suspicious, and then…

 

Ayuna imagined the system showing a (-) sign after the affection points, indicating that her relationship with Liana had started to deteriorate. No... Just the mere thought alone had Ayuna shudder.

 

Still, she had to say, what she came up with just now was simply brilliant. There was a fog in her mind while she could still see some outlines of some things? It sounded almost poetic. Very genius of her to come up with such an analogy.

 

Ayuna felt quite smug but kept it inside.

 

Liana finally broke the silence. “I got the pouch from one of the travelers I’d stumbled across in the past.” She smiled. “Now that I think about it, that situation was really similar to when I first met you. I was out collecting herbs in the BloodHorn forest and met a traveler being surrounded by a pack of wolves. I helped him out, and then he gave me this as a token of gratitude. I’ve used it since.”

 

Hearing this, Ayuna couldn’t help but admire Liana more and more. It seemed like she wasn’t the first person she’d saved. Seriously, a lone woman out saving people from time to time. Liana really looked like one of those heroes in stories. The more she learned about Liana, the more admirable she’d become.

 

She’d said she loved living alone, but Ayuna reckoned she must long for a connection with people. That’s why their relationship developed so fast. Not to sound too narcissistic, Ayuna also believed that her cute look played a huge part in it. Heck, she was even seduced by her own look back in the toilet!

 

Thinking about the toilet incident earlier, Ayuna started blushing profusely. No, forget about that incident. It was just a body inspection! Nothing more, nothing less.

 

She quickly closed her eyes and shook off those thoughts…

 

Feeling calm again, Ayuna leaned back on Liana’s blossoms. “Mind if I ask something personal?” 

 

Liana tilted her head and smiled. “Not at all. You can ask me anything.”

 

Ayuna took a deep breath and let the silence hang for a while. She was weighing whether she should ask this question or not. But… she really wanted to know…

 

“Have you…” Ayuna shifted on Liana’s laps, turned around, and faced her, looking her in the eyes and smiling softly. “Have you ever fallen in love before?”

 

Liana’s eyes widened. She looked totally shocked and stupefied for a moment, her body stiff like a log…

 

Silence shrouded the air for a while…

 

Ayuna observed her silently with a smile. After a while, she noticed a tinge of red on Liana’s cheeks, and it got redder and redder by the second.

 

Liana averted her gaze, looking a bit awkward. “W-What kind of question is that?”

 

Ayuna tilted her head innocently, though a smile still on her face. “It’s a very normal question, Liana. Nothing weird about it, is there?”

 

“I-I know, but…” Liana tried to look at Ayuna, but then her face got really red again, and she averted her gaze once more.

 

Seemed like it was the right choice after all. Liana looked so cute acting all bashful like this. 

 

Ayuna wanted to giggle but tried her best to suppress it. That didn’t stop the smile on her face to turn into an amused smirk, though. 

 

Good thing Liana didn’t seem to notice this, or else Ayuna didn’t know how she would react… Wait, didn’t that seem interesting as well, seeing how she would react if she found a smirk on her face? Hmmm…

 

Ayuna pondered for a moment but decided against it.

 

She’d asked this question not to tease her originally. She was just curious.

 

Ayuna seemed to be in a slight panic for a few seconds. It was ironic, really, seeing such a gentle and brave woman acting all shy like this. But it did make her look even cuter and more beautiful.

 

After a while, Liana started breathing in and out deeply. Then, a look of determination appeared on her face. 

 

She turned to look at Ayuna, her face still very red. “W-Well, actually…”

 

Ayuna tilted her head.

 

Liana stopped for a moment, her face getting redder. “Actually… I-I have…”