The Lady Nun Vows Revenge - Chapter 2: Chapter 2

'My coming-of-age ceremony? Seriously?' The thought struck Eliza like a jolt. 'Didn't I already go through that nightmare ages ago?'
She could still feel the sting of that day—sharp and cold, like a blade etched deep into her soul.
The mocking laughter of the guests. Her brother's venom-laced jabs. Her fiancé's cold, merciless withdrawal. And worst of all, the crushing disappointment in her parents' eyes, their words like knives.
She'd lived it. Bled from it. And died with the memory still burning in her bones.
'So why the hell is it happening again?' Her brows knitted, her chest tightening with confusion. 'Is Sophie really trying to pull the same dirty trick? What—ruin me all over again, until I break for good?'
Eliza's breath hitched, her whole body trembling as the panic rose. But then—something stopped her cold.
Her eyes went wide as she noticed her hands... they were perfectly fine. Not a single scar. Not even a scratch.
Her heart pouned as her gaze dropped to her feet—they were steasy, untouched.
Her face paled. 'No. No way. This... this can't be real!'
Her limbs—every single one—had been cut. She remembered the pain, the screams, the hopelessness. There was no healing from that. None.
Something was very wrong. She turned slowly, scanning the room with growing dread. And then recognition began to dawn.
The furniture. The curtains. The scent in the air. Everything matched a place she thought she'd never see again.
Her eyes fell on the old dressing table in the corner. Slowly, almost hesitantly, she walked toward it. Her reflection started to appear in the polished bronze mirror—clearer with each step she took.
And what she saw made her breath catch. A young face. Smooth. Untouched. Not a hint of the scars Sophie had left her with.
Her clothes, her hair—everything screamed innocence. This was her, before everything fell apart. Before the disgrace. Before the pain.
'No. It can't be. Did I... come back? Did I really wake up on the day of my coming-of-age ceremony?' The thought hit her like thunder.
Her breath came out shaky, almost a laugh. She covered her face with trembling hands, on the verge of hysteria.
"That's right... I died." Her voice cracked, barely above a whisper. "I died by Matthew's blade."
And yet, here she was. Alive. Breathing. Not a ghost—but thrown right back into the same nightmare she thought she'd escaped.
'Well, isn't that just great,' she thought with a bitter grin. 'God's got a twisted sense of humor.'
She had sworn—sworn on her grave—that she'd never have anything to do with the Stonors again. She was done with them. And yet, here was fate, dragging her right back into their mess.
Her teeth sank into her lower lip, hard enough to draw blood. The sharp, metallic taste snapped her back to reality. Her gaze turned icy.
Maybe this was God's way of messing with her. Or maybe this was her second chance.
She'd faced death before. Now, she was done being afraid.
Eliza had once been the shining jewel of the Duke's estate—the apple of everyone's eye.
From the moment she could walk and talk, she was the little sister her four brothers doted on, and the princess her father could never say no to.
For the first fifteen years of her life, she lived like a pearl in a golden box—loved, protected, and admired.
But everything changed the year she turned fifteen. That was when her father came home with a mysterious young girl and dropped a bombshell: this was his long-lost daughter, Sophie Stonor—their new sister.
And just like that, Eliza's world started to unravel.
Her father's once-warm affection for her turned icy, replaced by an overwhelming obsession with Sophie. Her brothers, once her protectors, started pulling away, lavishing all their attention on the newcomer instead.
Every smile, every hug, every kind word that used to be hers became Sophie's.
Back then, Eliza had no clue what she'd done wrong. She tried everything—swallowed her pride, begged, did her best to win them over.
But no matter what she did, it was never enough. All it brought her was pain—endless, soul-crushing pain.
Whenever Sophie even teared up, Benedict would drag Eliza out and make her apologize, no questions asked.
Dylan once snapped her arms and legs without blinking. Matthew tortured her like she was some criminal.
And Anthony, the youngest, destroyed her face and smeared her name until she couldn't even walk down the street without being spat on.
Even her father—her own blood—cast her out of the family without hesitation, erased her from the records, and left her with cruel words. "You're not fit to be a Stonor."
From beloved heiress to disgraced outcast, it took only three years to ruin her completely.
By the end, she had nothing left—no name, no home, no hope. She'd finally decided to leave Hasen City behind and start fresh somewhere far away, where no one knew who she was.
But just when she was about to go, things took a twisted turn. Sophie accused her of stealing a pendant. The Stonor family sent security guards after her, dragged her back in chains, and demanded she hand it over.
Even then, a part of her still held on to hope—maybe they still cared, just a little... She'd bet her last breath on that hope.
And lost.
Eliza drew in a shaky breath, squeezing her eyes shut as she shoved the memories aside.
'Maybe none of it was ever really mine,' she thought bitterly. 'Maybe I was just fooling myself all along. That's fine. I made the wrong choice in my previous life—but this time, I won't make the same mistakes.'
Just then, a soft clink echoed in the quiet room. Something had fallen to the ground.
She looked down and blinked in surprise—it was a familiar piece of emerald.
"Mother's pendant!" she gasped, her voice a mix of surprise and joy.
Eliza dropped to her knees and carefully scooped it up, cradling it in her palm like it was the most precious thing in the world. She gently brushed the dust off its surface—only to notice something strange.
It was broken.
She remembered it clearly. The pendant had once been two interlocking emerald hearts—symbols of unity, love. But now, only half of it remained. She frantically searched the ground, hoping to find the other piece, but it was gone.
Her gaze lingered on the pendant. The break was smooth—too clean to be from a fall.
"Hold on... this wasn't just cracked," she muttered to herself. "What if it was supposed to be like this?"
She traced her fingers along the edge of the break, and in a blink, she disappeared without a trace.
The world spun around her, and her head swam. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in a vast, silent realm, shrouded in white mist. The air was still—timeless—completely different from her bedroom.
'What the hell is this...?' she thought, eyes wide.
She crouched down and touched the ground. Grass. Cool and real beneath her fingers.
A wild thought bloomed in her mind. 'Am I... inside the pendant? And could this time travel stuff—could it all be connected?'
Pushing those questions aside for the moment, she took in her surroundings. The space wasn't huge. There was a field of soft grass, a crystal-clear stream trickling nearby, and a simple thatched hut standing quietly in the mist.
She made her way toward the hut. It was empty, untouched. Like no one had ever been there.
As she crossed the stream, something on the other side caught her eye, making her pause in her tracks. The area was brimming with all kinds of plants.
Stepping closer, her eyes went wide in surprise. No, this wasn't just a random collection of flowers or ordinary plants.
There, before her, were rare and prized specimens: ginseng, golden root, St. John's Wort, elderflower, and even the elusive mandrake...
Every single one was a rare medicinal herb—priceless treasures in the hands of any healer. And those were just the ones she recognized. There were dozens more that she'd never even seen before.
What shocked her most wasn't the herbs themselves—but how they were thriving here.
Some of them needed freezing climates. Others, humid forests. Some grew only in cliffs or deserts.
Yet here, in this strange, misty world—they were all growing together in perfect harmony.
'Is it this place? This pocket farm?' she wondered, staring around in disbelief.
And then she noticed the stream. The rarer the herb, the closer it was to the water.
"It's the stream," she whispered. "The water's the key." Eliza stared at the gentle current as a realization slowly dawned on her.
Eliza stood frozen, her eyes fixed on the scene before her. She couldn't help but mutter under her breath, "Mother... what's the secret behind the pendant you left me?"
As the shock lingered, a thought suddenly crossed her mind. 'Sophie once forced me to hand over the pendant out of the blue. Could she have already discovered this pocket farm?'
But that didn't quite add up. After all, the pendant had always been with her, never out of her sight.
If it wasn't for this strange twist of fate today, she might never have stumbled upon this hidden space.
And, based on what she knew about Sophie, she was clearly clueless about it.
So, either someone else had figured out the pendant's secret and spilled the beans to Sophie, or Sophie's real motive wasn't the space at all—it was something else entirely.
For some reason, Eliza couldn't shake the feeling that the latter was the more likely scenario.
But one thing was certain: now that she knew this secret, there was no way she'd let the pendant slip from her hands. It had to stay hidden—safe and sound, far from anyone else's reach.
With the pendant's pocket farm now under her control, Eliza felt a surge of confidence in her plan to get back at Sophie and the Stonor family.
After figuring out how to move freely in and out of the pendant's space, Eliza quickly made her way back to her room.
She couldn't stay in the space for too long—after all, today was her coming-of-age ceremony, and she knew someone would be looking for her soon.
But what Eliza didn't know was that, as she stepped out of the pendant's hidden space, a handsome young man in another mansion in Hasen City—the Regent's, to be exact—was suddenly jolted awake from his nap.
He grabbed the pendant from the table and stared at the broken half of the heart-shaped clasp, his brow furrowing in confusion.
Bang—
"Eliza! Get your butt out here!"
"Don't think you can hide in your room and I won't do anything about it!"
With a shout, a tall, broad-shouldered guy barged into Eliza's room, looking as mad as a bull.