Chapter 307: I Never Cry

Chapter 307 – I Never Cry

Noah stood there in the beautiful garden, his expression was forlorn, as his eyes looked at the white expanse of beautiful flowers.

As if reflecting his mood, the garden darkened. The white sun above was replaced by a dark sky with a red, bleeding sun. The surrounding flowers changed too.

They were once white-silver, but now they were deep black, glowing with an eerie woe.

Noah stood amidst this scene, with Lucie on his shoulders, looking at him with a tilted head.

She didn’t understand why her Lord looked so... sad?

But it was simply because Noah had just discovered something. It wasn’t something he had never thought about—but it was the first time he lived it.

Vengeance... was quite a bitter thing, right?

A sad and woeful smile crept onto his lips.

He had tortured Bari to the best of his abilities. Then he had put her in a realm where she would be burned eternally with her loved ones eating her from the inside out.

It should have been enough as punishment for daring to rape Sari but...

’...why does this feel so empty?’ Noah wondered as he started to walk slowly around the whimpering garden.

His steps were a little less steady than usual, and their echo was not the one filled with confidence Lucie was used to.

The garden seemed to shift with his every step, releasing echoes of sadness but also of warmth, trying to make him feel better.

But Noah was not feeling better.

Because even after doing all this to Bari—the pain, the sadness, the anger... all of them were still there, inside his heart, burning like fire under oil.

He was not satisfied. And that made him wonder, if even he himself was not satisfied with this vengeance, if even he still felt so heavy and bad about it...

’Then how should she feel?’

How?

Noah knew she would just smile faintly, like she always did, and tell him that she was fine.

But he knew that it was all an act. Something as traumatizing as this couldn’t be overcome just like that.

He would’ve loved if that were the case, actually—but reality was often disappointing.

’Ah... a mistake... one mistake of mine. One act of arrogance, and that caused me all this?’

It caused him to see his mother-in-law in this state?

Noah couldn’t help but laugh at this.

It wasn’t a laugh of joy. No, not at all.

It was a self-loathing laugh. A laugh a man on his deathbed would do when he found out how much he had missed in life because of society’s norms.

Yes, a deep and profound laugh of regret.

And what a dreadful feeling to have.

Regret?

Hah... that’s something you can only feel, but rarely can do anything to change.

Because most of the time, it’s too late. Snd it will make you doubt yourself over and over again.

But... fortunately for Noah...

"You are too hard on yourself."

A voice suddenly echoed behind him, startling Noah as he stiffly looked back and there...

"...mother," Noah said with a forced smile.

Selene’s heart felt like it was being shredded by some abomination of a beast as she saw the smile on her cute son’s face.

She approached silently, her steps soft and steady, and stood just an inch away from Noah.

Noah didn’t budge—he just watched, trying his best not to show his pitiful side to his mother. And so, he smiled.

It was a stiff smile.

"I thought no one knew of this place," he said, trying to make his words light and casual.

It was pretty well done, but... sometimes he forgot that the one in front of him wasn’t any person, wasn’t any random girl, or even one of his other wives.

No. This was his mother.

And if there was one thing mothers were scarily good at—it was spotting the mood of their children.

Especially one as obsessed as Selene.

"Now you’re lying to me. Who could have thought my cute little son would one day lie to me? Ah..." Selene said with a mock woeful tone.

But in that state of emotional distress, Noah couldn’t even see through Selene’s act and instantly scrambled his words.

"No... I mean, no mother, I just didn’t know that you knew this place? Just that, nothing else..." Noah said awkwardly.

Seeing him in this state, Selene couldn’t help but giggle.

But oh...

Her giggle alone was enough to dispel the dark sky and the red bleeding sun above the garden. Instead, a blue sky arose with a icy moon, and with that, the garden began to freeze.

Soon, it was transformed into a beautiful ice garden, with purple and blue lotuses floating around in a mystical manner.

Soft blue icy mist started to rise all around the garden, adding to its ethereal beauty.

Noah looked at this scene with slight amazement.

"My son..." Selene said as she approached Noah even more until she put her head against his chest.

Noah didn’t say anything.

"Don’t be too hard on yourself. You’ve made a mistake, granted—but it was one you couldn’t have prevented."

"I could have," Noah directly countered his mother’s words.

"I could have, mother... if I weren’t too arrogant, and if I hadn’t made my mind unable to think through all situations," he added, his voice cracking slightly at the edge.

The regret was deep.

He had avoided thinking about it since he had a battle to fight but now that it was all over... Noah realized how badly he had messed up.

But Selene didn’t quite agree with him on this one.

She raised her head to look at his face, then her hands followed as she grasped his two cheeks tenderly and pressed them together.

A weird and funny sight unfolded. A sight no being in Laeh would believe even if they were standing there watching with their own eyes.

They would rather believe Hell was a good place to live than believe this.

"Madderrr!!!" Noah tried to say "Mother," but pitifully failed with his cheeks squished together.

Selene just laughed again, seeing her little baby like this.

"You might have grown, you might have become something the whole world worships, you might have become something the universe fears and dreads, you might have now the power to destroy hundreds of worlds and apply the most dreadful tortures to any being but at the end of the day..."

"You are still my son, Noah. I birthed you, and even if you have changed along the way...I know you."

"I know how you’re feeling, but I also know that this was something that was supposed to happen. It was a lesson for you but also for all of us."

"And instead of being here acting like a depressed child—something Selene’s son couldn’t be—why not go and solve all this, my dear baby?" Selene said with a smile.

"It’s not late after all. You just have to act."

Noah’s heart was beating fast as he listened to her words.

It had been a long time since he’d spent any alone time with his mother, with all the shit happening. And it was only at times like this that he realized how much love and care he felt for her.

He realized how much his mother loved him and how she’d always been there, ready to catch him before he fell, when the burden he carried became too heavy.

She was always there.

Always.

A smile crept onto his lips amidst his cheeks being pressed together, as his eyes shimmered a little—before a small tear escaped his beautiful eyes.

Selene’s heart dropped as she immediately wiped away his tear, unable to bear the sight of her child crying.

"Don’t cry, my cute baby. Don’t..." her voice cracked, as tears started to fall from her eyes too.

She cried because her son cried.

Noah laughed at this.

This time, his laugh was not one of woe—but one of liberation.

"Crying? Gods, mother... I am Noah, your cute baby and a respectable man..."

He hugged her tightly with love and affection.

"...I never cry."

—End of Chapter 307—