A Shadow Cast in Paradise (23 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 10
When a pitch-black, enormous pit appeared before his eyes, Shade realized this was a dream.
A nightmare he’d had too often to be familiar with.
He hadn’t dreamed it in a while—her presence must have stirred up old memories in his mind.
Shade quietly stared into the black pit.
At that moment, corpses drenched in blood rose from the pitch darkness, screaming in agony.
“Save us, Shade!”
The people reaching out from the pit were so mangled their faces were unrecognizable.
Some stretched out arms with severed wrists; others shrieked with necks grotesquely twisted.
“Damn it.”
Even though he’d had this nightmare countless times and grown numb to it, his heart pounded as if it would burst within the dream.
He was sick of that heart thudding so loudly amidst anxiety and fear.
“Just leave me alone already, since you’re all dead.”
He wanted to tear out that damn heart.
Wasn’t it about time to stop this?
It had been eight years—yet every time he dreamed it, his throat clenched as if he might vomit.
Though his emotions had long since dried up, tears still fell steadily from his trembling eyes, stirred by some lingering turmoil.
He looked utterly pitiful, as if acting out a melodrama.
He even wanted to gouge out his tear ducts, which kept leaking tears as if broken.
As always, he lowered his head.
At his feet lay the shattered remains of a guardian statue.
The small sculpture he’d once gifted to his brother.
“Shade, I told you to be careful!”
At that instant, a man leaped from the pit and grabbed his throat.
Though his face was crushed beyond recognition, Shade knew exactly who he was.
The man choking him was his own brother.
Phamen Lupus—the only one he’d ever trusted and followed.
With a voice full of hatred, his brother screamed at the cowardly survivor.
This wasn’t a dream—it was a memory.
The pit was filled with corpses of the Lupuses. His brother, his friends, his comrades—all crushed so badly their forms were unrecognizable, though they’d been presumed missing.
He’d discovered their bodies in a massive pit behind the Ideana estate.
The estate’s knights had buried the dead Lupuses like livestock in that pit.
Eight years ago on that day, Shade Lupus lost everything.
Even now, the falling tears wouldn’t stop, and his heart throbbed as if pierced by a blade.
But now, he was bored.
It held no interest, like a storybook read thousands of times.
“It’s time to wake up now.”
Still choked by his dead brother, Shade thought, drenched in boredom.
The nightmare always ended around this point.
When he woke, he’d spend yet another sleepless night in that foul mood.
But then—
“Of all the Lupuses, did you really think you amounted to anything?”
The surroundings grew dark in an instant, and there she stood before him.
Her dazzling golden hair and clear, translucent emerald eyes shimmered brightly.
Shade froze in place, stunned by her sudden appearance.
“You… why are you here…?”
This was a dream he’d never had before.
Luise Ideana stared straight at him with an innocent, bewildered expression.
Shade couldn’t tear his eyes away from her.
He feared that if he looked away even for a second, she’d vanish like smoke.
Instead, he parted his lips and managed to squeeze out a hoarse voice.
“You… knew too?”
That my brother and comrades were being slaughtered by the Ideanas?
Deny it. Tell me you knew nothing of all those deaths.
In response to his question, Luise Ideana gave him the very smile he’d once loved.
“Aren’t you just a Lupus?”
She tilted her head slightly, answering with childlike innocence.
Her voice was soft and melodic, like reciting poetry—making it all the more cruel.
To the Ideanas, the Lupuses were slaves, mere disposable tools.
“Luise!”
Enraged, he lunged toward her.
But his outstretched hand met nothing—she vanished in an instant like a mirage, taunting him.
No! If you disappear like this, what will become of my rage, my despair…?!
“Hah…!”
Shade jolted upright.
It was still pitch black around him, leaving him unsure whether he was still dreaming or awake.
Only after confirming the white blanket covering him while catching his ragged breath did he clench his fist.
“Damn it…!”
Tendons bulged along the back of his hand.
It had been a filthy dream.
Filthier than his usual nightmares.
His heart hammered as if he’d just sprinted at full speed.
He lifted his head and looked out the window.
It was still too early for sunrise—the deepest part of dawn.
Soon, he would begin the long journey back to Ideana.
Tonight would be his last chance to rest in a comfortable bed.
But the nightmare left him unable to sleep again.
He rose from bed and poured water into an empty glass.
His Adam’s apple bobbed several times as he swallowed.
Yet the lukewarm water couldn’t relieve the suffocating weight deep in his chest.
He ran a hand through his tousled hair and furrowed his brow.
No matter how many deep breaths he took, his unease wouldn’t fade.
He felt as if he’d missed something important.
Shade rose, put on his robe, and walked toward the window.
Everyone who’d stayed up late packing had gone to sleep for the long journey ahead. The world was submerged in suffocating silence, as if nothing had ever happened.
Yet a single word shattered the quiet of his dawn.
“Ideana.”
That damn word was lodged in his mind like an arrowhead, refusing to budge.
He recalled that woman with anxious, green eyes.
The woman who’d vanished like smoke in his dream.
The woman who kept feeding his unease.
“Sometimes, my lord truly seems like a beast.”
Once, the fearless Hedric had said this to him.
“How did you know enemy soldiers were hiding there?”
It was the day he’d pinpointed the enemy’s position with nothing but instinct and no prior intelligence.
The knights had stared at him as if he were a sorcerer after he located and crushed the enemy without any spies.
Of course, it wasn’t magic—it was simply his unusually sharp intuition.
Eklas had called it “rapid inference based on long experience.”
Years of being forced into monster hunts and battles since slavery, constantly clinging to survival amidst life-and-death struggles, desperately seeking paths through horrific disasters—this ability must have formed from using his mind to survive in such circumstances.
It didn’t matter what name they gave this ability—intuition, magical-like extrasensory perception, or analytical reasoning.
What mattered was that it had saved his life countless times.
It was the same now.
Shade couldn’t ignore the chill current flowing through the air.
He put on his robe and stepped into the hallway.
No one was outside his room—everyone was asleep. Even Head Butler Werner and the other knights seemed to be conserving strength for the long journey at sunrise.
Shade didn’t bother waking anyone else.
It was a simple matter—just one thing to confirm.
Besides, only seeing it with his own eyes would ease his mind.
Liana Serpens.
That new maid had said she was staying slightly apart from the others.
Since she’d arrived suddenly, they’d set up a temporary bed for her in a small storeroom.
Shade headed toward that storeroom.
The path to Liana’s room was as black as pitch.
With all the lamps extinguished, he followed the route only by eyes adjusted to the dark.
In that faint darkness, barely illuminated by moonlight filtered through clouds, Shade recalled his bitter history with Ideana.
“Liana Serpens…”
He repeated her name over and over in his mind.
No matter how hard he tried, it never quite felt right on his tongue.
Luise Ideana—that name felt familiar, and suited her well.
But if he called her by that name, he wouldn’t be able to keep her bound. After all, she was the only daughter of Count Felix Ideana, a traitor who’d researched dark magic.
Luise Ideana was a clear-cut criminal who deserved death.
“I can’t let her die that easily.”
If Luise Ideana’s survival became known, she’d be hauled away immediately—and his long-awaited revenge would once again be stolen by someone else’s hands.
He headed toward the storeroom at the back of the mansion, where freshly laundered linens were stacked, filling the air with the scent of soap.
Shade paused briefly in front of the storeroom door.
“Hah…”
He let out a short breath, annoyed at himself for halting so abruptly after walking in with such determination.
It was as if he’d become a slave again, timidly waiting for permission before entering a lady’s room.
An old habit he’d ingrained long ago surfaced unconsciously, tightening his chest with tension.
Eight years had passed. Now, everything here belonged to him—and she was under his command.
Cursing that damn habit, Shade bit down hard and roughly yanked open the doorknob.
He didn’t care whether the maid Liana Serpens woke up startled or not.
With a loud creak, the door swung wide open, letting in the cold dawn wind.
The wind swirled violently through the space Shade faced—a dark, narrow, empty space.
After circling once, the wind returned as a vast emptiness, engulfing him.
All he saw was a small cot barely large enough for one person.
On it lay a neatly folded white blanket, almost disgustingly pristine.
As if deliberately confirming his chilling intuition.
That intuition quickly turned to fury.
A sharp crack echoed from the doorknob clenched in his massive hand.
Leaving the empty storeroom’s door wide open, he marched back toward the mansion.
“Kael!”
His thunderous voice echoed through the vast hall of dawn.
With hurried steps, he returned to his room, put on his jacket, and grabbed the sword he always kept beside his bed. Unlike usual, his movements were accompanied by loud, rough sounds.
Meanwhile, Kael arrived, his shirt buttons still unfastened.
“My lord, what’s happened?”
Kael wasn’t alone—other knights and Head Butler Werner had arrived as well.
They feared an assassination attempt on Shade, but his room appeared perfectly clean, without a single drop of blood.
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
_____
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