A Shadow Cast in Paradise (23 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 9
“Do you feel relieved?”
The corridor was deserted and silent after everyone had left.
Shade stopped walking and asked.
Liana slowly raised her head.
Shade, who had been walking ahead, had already turned around and was now looking down at her.
The overcast sky had suddenly cleared, and light poured in through the windows. The sharp illumination accentuated the contours of his face, making his anger all the clearer.
The brighter the light, the sharper the shadows—while one side of his face gleamed white, the other sank deep into darkness.
Even his violet eyes seemed different in color. One shimmered, brimming with light as if about to overflow with tears, while the other gleamed darkly and fiercely, as though ready to kill someone at any moment.
Liana gazed at his face and parted her lips.
“I won’t go to Ideana.”
Every time she moved her mouth, the corners of her lips and cheeks stung, and her jaw ached. Yet she articulated her words clearly.
At that, a deeper shadow fell across Shade’s face.
“You cannot disobey my command.”
He warned her in a low voice.
“I never agreed to become a maid in the Duke’s household, urk—!”
Before Liana could finish her rebuttal, Shade shoved her against the wall.
Her back throbbed from the impact.
“Don’t you dare delude yourself into thinking you’re some noble lady.”
With his back to the window, Shade’s face was completely swallowed by shadow.
Only seething anger remained visible in his eyes.
“I’m not deluding myself. I simply have the right to choose.”
“The right to choose…?”
As if the very word “choice” were some forced, absurd joke, he twisted his lips disdainfully.
“Did you ever imagine such a thing existed for someone beneath you?”
His grip tightened on Liana’s shoulders.
It hurt as if her bones were about to splinter.
“Are you asking whether I ever had such a choice, Luise Ideana?”
His oppressive whisper erased every trace of her former life as a slave.
Her eyelids, which had been defiant just moments ago, trembled faintly.
“Was my will ever even slightly considered in sending you to the Ideana estate—or in forcing you to leave? Tell me, was it?”
His question pierced her heart like a dagger.
Confronted with the past he had just dredged up, Liana could offer no defense or justification.
Only her green eyes trembled uneasily, like leaves shaken by a faint breeze.
“I see you finally understand.”
The strength in his large hand gripping her shoulder drained away.
Shade slowly stepped back a pace.
“Now that you know your place, follow quietly. After all, you’re just returning to your homeland, aren’t you?”
At his indifferent remark, Liana’s expression faltered.
He mocked her, fully aware of what “Ideana” truly meant to her.
The place where the Ideana family had been exterminated for the crime of heresy and treason.
The land of her downfall.
Liana’s small shoulders quivered faintly, but Shade spoke coldly.
“So, be happy.”
Returning home after so many years.
At those few words, Liana bit her lip hard.
Shade turned and walked away from her.
With long, decisive strides, he vanished into the distance.
Left alone in the silent corridor, Liana sank to the floor, leaning against the wall.
Her hand, clutching the black hem of her dress, trembled.
[This is the timeline separator]
“You intend to go straight to Ideana?”
Eklas’s eyebrows twitched slightly.
But no answer came.
Shade Lester had been staring at the play of light and shadow reflected on the table ever since earlier.
Light filtered through his wine glass, distorting and rippling as it flowed.
Ideana. Shade had been thinking about that name the whole time.
A word that was both the name of a land and the name of that woman.
The more he repeated it in his mind, the sweeter it tasted.
Both the land and the woman were now in his hands—stripped of their former glory and tarnished.
Shade recalled how she had trembled, curled up like a bird with broken wings.
‘Luise Ideana.’
She had been small even before, but she’d grown even smaller over the years—thin, disheveled, filthy, and insignificant, buried in mud.
She seemed as easily manipulated as Shade Lupus had been eight years ago.
The thought stirred a flicker of irritation, yet also satisfaction.
‘I’m taking her back to Ideana.’
Just that thought alone made Shade Lester’s blood pulse.
Until the moment he received the Ideana territory from the Emperor, he hadn’t cared for the land—it held only bitter memories.
But the moment he found Luise Ideana, he sensed fate.
The Ideana territory would be the perfect stage for his revenge.
Shade wondered what expression Luise Ideana would wear when they arrived there.
Would she shiver again with fear? Would she burst into tears? Would she kneel and beg for forgiveness? Or would she brazenly lash out in defiance?
He couldn’t picture her face.
So much had changed over eight years—and so had Luise Ideana.
“Duke Shade Lester. Are you listening to me?”
Only after Eklas repeated his call in a crisp, clear voice did Shade slowly lift his eyelids.
Eklas’s brow furrowed in displeasure—Shade had been lost in thought despite Eklas standing right before him.
“…I’ve already sent the important message through Hedric, so it won’t matter if you arrive a few months late.”
Shade spoke in a toneless voice.
He had often left Munhe Castle for wars or beast hunts since long ago. There were plenty of capable retainers and officials to manage affairs in his absence.
Besides…
Shade glanced briefly at Eklas.
‘And there’s someone watching over things.’
He thought this as he noticed those suspiciously gleaming crimson eyes.
Meeting Shade’s gaze, the crimson eyes narrowed in annoyance.
“But everyone at Munhe will be preparing to welcome you.”
Eklas recalled the news delivered by the messenger sparrow yesterday.
“A week ago, the Marlehein carriage crossed the border. It bore the Sacred Sigil—so it must be the Archdeacon.”
The Marlehein family’s carriage had headed toward Munhe Castle.
The House of Marlehein was one of the select princely houses entitled to vote in the Imperial election.
And among the Marleheins, only one person could display the Divine Sigil—the Archdeacon herself. Therefore, the one in that carriage crossing the border was surely Archdeacon Giselle Marlehein.
What mattered most was that Giselle was Shade Lester’s fiancée.
She had surely come all this way to congratulate him on his recent victory.
Yet Shade intended to leave his esteemed fiancée waiting and instead change his destination to Ideana.
It was a decision no sensible person would ever make.
But Shade, resting his chin indifferently in his hand, reached languidly for his wine glass.
“The victory ceremony was already noisy enough. I don’t need another headache with a welcome reception.”
“I don’t mean to pry, but standing up your fiancée is ill-advised—especially when she’s the Archdeacon of Marlehein.”
At Eklas’s advice, Shade’s hand paused mid-reach for the wine glass.
He recalled the woman to whom he’d been betrothed years ago out of political necessity.
The woman who’d signed her name beside his…
What did she even look like? He’d recognize her if he saw her, but trying to remember now, he couldn’t even recall her hair color.
All he remembered was that she was quite ambitious.
Though… hadn’t she also been rather righteous?
Shade idly rubbed his chin as he pondered.
Ambition and righteousness—two words that didn’t belong together.
One couldn’t pursue justice while chasing ambition, nor achieve ambition while upholding justice. So one of those impressions must be wrong.
Whichever it was, she was undoubtedly born privileged, raised well, and remained impressive even now.
At their engagement ceremony, she’d been too busy exchanging pleasantries and chatting with other lofty nobles. As one of the Empire’s few Archdeacons, she had many admirers.
There were always so many people around her—in his memory, Giselle Marlehein was just a faceless cluster of people.
Shade brought the cup back to his lips as he thought of his fiancée once more.
“The merciful Archdeacon will surely understand with her generous heart.”
Brushing thoughts of his fiancée aside, Shade drank his wine indifferently.
[This is the timeline separator]Liana curled up on the small, coffin-like bed and closed her eyes.
Ideana. Once, people called that land paradise—beautiful and abundant, so rich it remained self-sufficient despite its distance and isolation from the Imperial capital.
The blue sea surrounding the small peninsula, lemon trees blooming with white flowers, and wheat fields stretching across the hills were more beloved than any other land.
To the north rose the towering Prunig Mountains, capped with eternal snow; to the south lay emerald seas and white-sand beaches.
Luise Ideana was born in that land, blessed by the gods.
But the beautiful Ideana Liana remembered no longer existed.
Cursed as heretical for practicing dark magic, ravaged under accusations of treason.
And it was Luise Ideana herself who had brought that ruin upon the land.
“Luise, you shall now live forever.”
Liana curled herself even smaller.
Disgusting memories rose like swamp water, dragging her under.
‘After all I went through to escape… why must I leave again…’
Liana reminded herself why she had left Ideana.
She couldn’t return there. No—she shouldn’t.
Not for her own sake, nor for the sake of that forsaken land, nor for Shade Lester’s.
At the end of her deliberation, her resolve hardened.
Liana rose from the bed.
Though the sun had fully set, people outside remained busy preparing for tomorrow’s departure.
She owned nothing, so there was nothing to pack.
All she took was a faded yellow dress given by the Head Maid, a small amount of money for travel expenses, and a tiny pocket knife tucked in her bosom, just in case.
Waiting until the others had dispersed, Liana draped a gray hood over her shoulders.
Her worn-out shoes, creaking with each limping step, left the room.
Turns Out He’s Been Secretly in Love with Me
One-line summary: He acts like he doesn’t like her but is actually playing hard to get.
Synopsis:
Xu Muzhou like her. He has liked her for a very long time, and through repeated schemes, he finally closed the distance with her.
But this is still far from enough.
He wants to be the one who stands out among her many suitors, to fight for her attention, and to make her take the initiative to pursue him.
_____
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