14. To a Place Where the Moonlight Does Not Reach
He left Helen’s estate and headed toward the heart of District 1 with Ina. Since the village’s borders remained open during the inauguration, the two of them easily slipped into the crowd without much trouble.
They made their way to a hideout at the village’s edge. With the town fully immersed in festival celebrations, there was no need to conceal their red hair and eyes, allowing them to move freely.
Thanks to this, Ina was able to quickly grasp the situation and immediately began meeting with the elders who had been pushed to the outskirts. Fortunately, these outer elders were receptive to her.
The central elders, including those at the heart of the district, were too preoccupied with securing their own positions, leaving the outer elders marginalized. In particular, the central elders had already solidified their ties with Joshua Shining by blood, ensuring their continued authority, while the outer elders had not even been granted the opportunity for an audience, causing resentment to fester.
And now, with Ina—whom they had believed dead at the hands of the Shining family’s purge—standing before them, their convictions began to waver. The legitimacy of the inauguration had long since crumbled with the absence of the previous Shining patriarch.
While Ina was moving into action, he was searching for a way into the estate. She had instructed him to remain hidden at the hideout to avoid drawing attention, but he found the passing time unbearable.
He wanted to wrap things up as quickly as possible and return to Seo-yul. And perhaps it was just his imagination, but the longer he remained separated from Seo-yul, the weaker his body seemed to become.
‘I have to minimize the time spent here.’
For days, he lingered near the estate. Unlike the village, which welcomed outsiders freely during the festival, the estate was always heavily guarded, making it difficult to approach.
Fortunately, he still remembered a few secret passages, so slipping into the outer perimeters of the estate wasn’t an issue—the real problem lay beyond that.
After days of watching for an opportunity, he decided to stop waiting and take action. He worried about how to slip past prying eyes, but surprisingly, there were no guards in sight.
The estate was wide open.
‘Strange.’
All the concerns that had plagued him before now seemed pointless as he swiftly reached a hidden entrance of the estate. Scanning the eerie silence around him, he gripped his loaded gun and quietly slipped inside.
“Pointless.”
He had expected it from a distance, but seeing it up close, the estate was even more lavish than anticipated. Even in these secluded corners, everything was adorned in the signature crimson of the Shining family and the golden hues symbolizing their glory.
An inauguration without the previous District Leader was bound to stir countless rumors. Perhaps that was why Joshua seemed to have used even more red—to emphasize that he was the one and only Shining.
‘Or maybe this is just his personal taste.’
Originally, he had only intended to check the entrance to the estate, but since it was so easily accessible, he figured he might as well go inside. Fortunately, there were plenty of places to hide within the estate.
The estate’s grand hall, where the line between day and night blurred, was always bustling with people. Avoiding the banquet hall, he wandered along the estate’s outskirts when he suddenly came across something unusual.
‘Strange.’
It wasn’t just his imagination—there was a noticeably large concentration of guards in this particular area. No, it wasn’t just that. It felt as though the entire security force of the estate had been stationed here. The fact that they were guarding the place so thoroughly meant there was something inside they wanted to keep hidden.
Most likely, Joshua’s weakness.
‘Sneaking in quietly doesn’t seem like an option.’
He hid and observed, but there wasn’t a single opening. He couldn’t afford to wait endlessly either, so in the end, he decided to leave and come back another time.
“Lord Jeremy.”
Someone spoke a familiar name. Just as he was about to turn away, he halted his steps and saw a Shining emerging from the heavily guarded area.
Jeremy Shining. The insufferable Joshua’s identical twin. But because of his lighter coloration, he was treated entirely differently. Not that he cared in the slightest.
Perhaps because of his twin status, Jeremy had managed to remain in the estate. Maybe there was some semblance of brotherly affection after all, because when the Shining family was being purged, Jeremy had come out unscathed.
“Make sure he takes it on time. And be careful not to let the scent fade.”
Jeremy pulled something from his coat and handed it to a servant. The servant, clutching a small pouch, bowed deeply. The distance was too great to see clearly, but he could faintly smell a fragrance emanating from Jeremy.
‘Who is in there?’
Mulling over Jeremy’s suspicious words, he decided to leave for now. Lingering too long risked being spotted by the wall of guards.
He slipped out of the estate as effortlessly as he had entered and headed straight for the hideout.
Ina, who had arrived before him, threw open the door the moment he stepped inside and shouted furiously.
“I told you to stay put and not go anywhere!”
Her sharp voice rang through his ears, making him frown. He didn’t respond, but his displeased expression was obvious enough. Letting out a deep sigh, Ina realized only now that he had been slipping out for days.
His aide, under strict instructions, had kept quiet about it. Though the aide had claimed it was only a one-time outing, given the circumstances, it was clearly more than that.
The fact that Vincent Shining was alive was their most powerful weapon. With Joshua lacking an official succession from the previous District Leader, his authority was already on shaky ground.
The moment the originally designated heir reappeared, the entire empire Joshua had built on sand would crumble in an instant. But for that, they had to strike at the right moment. Now was not the time to act recklessly.
“I know you’re impatient, but we have to be careful right now.”
“If no one saw me, then what’s the problem?”
“That’s not the issue.”
Ina pressed her fingers against her throbbing temples. She understood why he was so anxious. He must be desperate to return to the omega he had left behind at the district’s borders. But right now, personal emotions had to take a backseat to the greater cause.
“I found a way into the estate.”
“…You actually went inside?”
His unexpected words made her vision swim for a moment. It was already a problem that he had been wandering the streets, but now he was saying he had entered the estate? If anyone had seen him, their plan would have failed before it even began.
“There were no guards around.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It must, or I wouldn’t have made it back.”
He had a point. A Shining was impossible to overlook, and with his striking colors, blending in was even more difficult. Given the estate’s usual security, he should have been caught immediately. And yet, nothing had happened.
Sure, many people had died during the Shining purge, but not enough to leave the estate defenseless. As she turned his words over in her mind, Ina suddenly realized something strange.
“What about Joshua?”
“I didn’t see him anywhere. Oh, but I did see Jeremy. That bastard—Joshua’s twin, the one who looks just like him.”
Joshua had been absent during the Shining purge as well. Instead, it had been Jeremy who took command, leading the purge in Joshua’s stead. Back then, they had been too busy fighting for survival to think much of it, but looking back, it was undeniably odd.
And according to the outer elders, Joshua had barely been seen in the lead-up to the inauguration. Officially, it was due to health issues, and it was Jeremy who had been handling the ceremony in his place.
But in the Shining family, color was everything. No matter how many times one was reborn, a pale hue meant they would never be treated properly. And Joshua was someone with an unwavering belief in the supremacy of color.
No matter how close they were as twins, there was no way Joshua would entrust something as significant as the inauguration to Jeremy, whose color was too faint.
“And there’s something they’re hiding.”
“Hiding?”
He recounted what he had seen, and as she listened in silence, an unsettling thought surfaced in Ina’s mind.
It was an absurd idea—one that defied all logic. And yet, considering everything that had happened so far, there was only one possible conclusion.
“It wasn’t Joshua. It was Jeremy.”
“…What?”
“The one calling the shots—it wasn’t Joshua Shining. It was Jeremy Shining!”
Ina repeated herself as if trying to make sense of it. He frowned and waited for her to calm down. After muttering to herself for a long while, Ina’s eyes widened, and she finally laid out her reasoning.
“The outer elders kept saying it. At some point, Joshua stopped appearing, and Jeremy started handling everything in his place. And if you think back to the Shining purge, it wasn’t Joshua giving the orders—it was Jeremy.”
“So, what’s your point?”
He cut her off, demanding a conclusion. Ina took a deep breath, steadied herself, and summarized everything in a single sentence.
“The one we need to kill isn’t Joshua. It’s Jeremy.”
