The moment the words left her mouth, the pendant vanished from her hand, quietly slipping into her spatial storage.
Sitting right beside her, Liam watched this unfold but couldn’t immediately process what he was seeing. He simply stared blankly at Suzy. After a moment, his gaze drifted back to her hand. Her pale palm was now completely empty.
"Suzy? Where did the pendant go?" Liam couldn’t help but ask.
He distinctly remembered that she hadn’t made a single move. After taking the pendant, she had maintained her original posture without shifting an inch. Yet, just like that, the pendant had vanished. It had disappeared into thin air.
Liam even wondered if he was hallucinating. Otherwise... how could something so utterly bizarre happen?
"Oh, the pendant? I put it in my space," Suzy said, completely open and casual about it.
Since Liam was officially on her side now and wouldn’t betray her, there was no harm in letting him know about her spatial pocket dimension.
"Your space?"
A trace of bewilderment flickered in Liam’s eyes. He was trying his best to process what she was saying, but it still sounded like a foreign language to him.
"Yeah... basically like a spatial dimension in web novels, or like a storage ring. A place where you can store physical items. Does that make sense?" Suzy gave a brief explanation.
The confusion on Liam’s face instantly gave way to realization. Put that way, he understood. Still, he was incredibly shocked that such a thing actually existed in the real world.
"Oh." He didn’t pry any further, simply nodding with a quiet, docile expression.
"How about I take you inside to see it?" Suzy suggested with a smile. Since she had already decided to be open with him, bringing him into her space was no big deal.
Hearing this, Liam’s eyes lit up. "Can you really?"
He could feel himself getting closer to Suzy’s inner world and her deepest secrets, and he loved the feeling. It made him feel as though the distance between them was truly shrinking. This was good—incredibly good.
"Of course you can. Hold onto my hand," Suzy said.
Liam obediently clasped her hand, their fingers intertwining. With a single thought, Suzy attempted to pull him into her pocket dimension.
But at that exact moment, she hit a strange, invisible barrier.
Suzy blinked in surprise. She tried again.
When she opened her eyes, she was still sitting in her bedroom. Liam was looking at her blankly, waiting for something to happen.
Frowning, Suzy focused inward to sense her pocket dimension. It was definitely there, functioning perfectly. So... why couldn’t they enter?
Before she could dwell on it, the system finally had enough and chimed in.
[Host, your space is currently undergoing an upgrade.]
Suzy froze, and then a wave of pure, ecstatic joy washed over her. An upgrade? The space was upgrading?
[Yes. The upgrade is in progress.]
Suzy hadn’t expected it to happen so suddenly. "Is it because of Liam’s family heirloom?" she asked the system, trying to confirm. She couldn’t think of any other explanation.
Upgrading the space required a staggering amount of energy. Ordinary gold, silver, and jewelry were barely a drop in the bucket for the kind of power needed now. While she had accumulated a decent amount of energy beforehand, the only thing she had handled recently with that level of raw, concentrated power was Liam’s pendant.
Still, she was incredibly surprised. She hadn’t expected his family heirloom alone to trigger the upgrade so swiftly. She had assumed it would take much longer, at least another few weeks. Happiness had truly caught her off guard.
While Suzy was busy conversing with the system in her head, Liam, who had been waiting in suspense, finally spoke up. "Are we not there yet?"
Suzy looked at him, feeling a bit embarrassed. "My space is currently upgrading, so we can’t get in right now. Next time, okay?"
Liam looked at her. Though he didn’t say anything, a fleeting look of disappointment crossed his eyes.
"Okay."
Suzy caught his disappointment. "Today is just a special circumstance. Next time, I promise I’ll show you around."
After reassuring him, she quickly asked the system, "System, how long will the upgrade take this time?"
After a brief pause, the system replied: [It won’t be too long. Just about a week.]
A week? Well, a week really wasn’t that long.
Suzy found herself growing excited to see what the upgraded space would look like. She wondered if that restricted area would finally open up. The total area of the space would definitely expand with this upgrade, which meant she should finally be able to access that hidden zone.
For the longest time, she had been curious about that mysterious, unreachable area that looked like an ancient town. Since she hadn’t known when the next upgrade would happen, she had been forced to bottle up her curiosity. Now that she knew the upgrade would be finished in a week, her buried excitement bubbled right back to the surface.
With her mind completely occupied by her spatial dimension, she briefly forgot about the man sitting right in front of her.
Watching the expressions rapidly flicker across her face, Liam couldn’t help but call out softly, "Suzy?"
Suzy snapped out of it and looked at him. "Yes?"
Liam hesitated, looking unsure of whether he should speak.
"Just say what’s on your mind," Suzy encouraged gently.
Taking a deep breath, Liam finally asked, "Have the others... already been inside your space?"
Suzy blinked, not expecting him to ask this. Is he jealous?
Still, she didn’t lie and answered honestly, "Yeah, they have."
Hearing this, the light in Liam’s eyes dimmed slightly.
Detecting his shift in mood, Suzy asked softly, "Does that make you unhappy?"
Liam looked at her, first nodding and then shaking his head. "A little, but it’s okay."
Before Suzy could fully dissect what he meant, Liam continued, "Does this mean... I’m just the same as them to you?"
Suzy froze. She hadn’t expected him to put her on the spot like this. Was this some kind of trap question?
Even though she knew a wrong answer wouldn’t penalize her affection points anymore, she still chose her words with careful deliberation. "You and they are all equally important to me."
She had expected the diplomat’s answer to displease him, but to her surprise, a radiant, beautiful smile spread across Liam’s face. His eyes were incredibly soft. "That’s enough for me."
He wasn’t greedy. He only asked that he hold the same weight in her heart as the others did. Equal was more than enough. He knew very well that he was late to the game, so he wouldn’t demand more than his share.
This time, Liam took the initiative to slide closer to Suzy, gently pulling her into his arms. Suzy let herself sink against his shoulder.
Neither of them spoke, simply wrapping themselves in the quiet warmth of the moment. Outside, the others left them in peace, making no move to disturb their quiet sanctuary.