Harem Stealer: Reborn with the God-Tier Sharing System - Chapter 445

Chapter 445: Chapter 445: Maryam
Chapter 445 – Maryam

A single word from Noah about wishing to speak with his mother alone, and Maryam immediately acted, creating an infinitely wide space made of fog.

It was not the end.

Under his eyes, the fog shifted and transmuted into solid ground, then rose upward and created a sky. Next it bloomed outward, and air and tangible space were birthed.

Maryam exhaled through her mouth, and thousands of souls erupted from it. Those souls began to transform into a garden of grey flowers, with a peaceful sun looking like a white disk on a grey sky.

The Soul Ruler next turned her face toward her son, and extended her hand toward Noah.

Noah allowed himself a smile, and mirrored her gesture.

They began to walk peacefully around the wide garden of flowers, passing through rivers that flowed in the air through unseen canals, among chirping birds and rustling of cute squirrels.

No words had been spoken.

Each one of them had a thing, or even thousands of things, to say to the other.

Maryam wished to know how her son lived after her death. How the Son of Emptiness made him reincarnate, and if it was painful.

She wanted to know if Selene had been a good mother, but that, she realized, was not a needed question. With how her son loved Selene, the answer was obvious.

It pained her.

She would have wished to know his stories, and how his journey had been until this point. Maryam wanted to know the person her son had become.

And for that, she wanted to know everything of him. Everything.

She clenched her hand tighter around his, swallowing back the surge of emotion trying to burst through her whole being.

It was achingly hard.

But she managed.

Yet what she didn’t know — or didn’t have time to ponder because of her turbulent emotions — was that Noah was in the same situation as her.

The revelations and the matter of Selene had made him dazed, unable to react properly. But now that a way out of this situation had been given, his emotions were now fully exposed.

He breathed softly, raising his head overhead.

Their steps were in eerie sync, crushing the flowers beneath them without much care, creating a path in their wake.

His thoughts wandered, they sank deeper into his mind, and pulled out memories.

Memories of his life on Earth with his mother.

Her loving side, and her sacrificial aspect.

How she always put him above herself, and did her best to raise him in the cold embrace of Paris, where everyone had their own problems to deal with.

Maryam raised him with respect and affection. And even if his birth caused her so much grief and suffering… the loving mother was never unreasonable enough to hate him for it.

Her love went beyond all of that.

Even after her death, and her coming into the Spirit World, she didn’t stop caring and loving him.

She made a deal with an unknown being, and sacrificed an important piece of her soul, gambling with her life with so many enemies around, all for him to be reborn and have someone to protect him.

Selene Weaverheart.

She was a clone of Maryam who managed to bear her own feelings and her own love for him.

With her, Noah felt loved. And now he knew where the origin of that love came from.

He slowly turned his head and looked at Maryam, and saw her already looking at him with a strange expression.

It was as if she still couldn’t believe that Noah was there, with her, walking with her, holding hands with her.

Her grip tightened, as if afraid that all of this was but one of her uncountable dreams she had over the course of her immortal life.

Noah halted his steps. Maryam did too, with him.

He pivoted his body to face her properly, approached her in one step, before taking her into a crushing, warm hug.

Maryam froze, eyes dilating. Her mind dazed, her hands limp at each side of her body.

“I have missed you, mother.” Noah whispered, voice thick with restrained feelings, “I truly did.”

Maryam’s eyes shimmered, tears threatening to patter onto the flowers below. She bit her lips and held them back.

“Did you really?” she asked hoarsely, slowly returning the hug, “Did you forget about me?”

“How could I?” Noah answered softly. “You are my mother.”

“You have another mother.” She countered, “One you are ready to grab hands with. One that made you break my hug when I hugged you. One that made you worry about her instead of reuniting with me first.”

Her voice became choked, breathing ragged as her chest heaved up and down, her hands shaking.

Noah clenched his jaw, and hugged her tighter.

Maryam was not done.

“I have waited for you, Brandon.” She wheezed, “I have waited for you for an untold number of years, with uncertainty burning my whole mind. I was not sure if you would come, and I died multiple times with those poisonous thoughts inside of me.”

“But I waited.”

Noah’s chest tightened. He wished his mother would stop, yet he found no strength to tell her to stop.

She needed to vent her feelings, her frustrations, and everything inside of her.

It hurt him. He felt guilty for first worrying about Selene instead of being eager to finally meet her. Yet somehow, Noah knew that if the situation happened again, his actions would not change.

He cursed himself for it, and steeled his heart to bear his mother’s words.

His heart was pierced easily.

“I waited, Brandon. I waited amidst enemies, I waited amidst pain, I waited amidst insecurities, I waited amidst frustrations….”

She paused, gasping for breath. At that instant, she was nothing like a merciless ruler.

At that instant, she was a mother who patiently waited for her son to return to her, only to see him caring more about another than herself.

A fragment of herself, at that. It should normally have felt better, but somehow, ironically, it felt worse.

Maryam was angry. And she was hurt.

But her love was grander than anything.

It was a love that survived across generations. It was a love that birthed Selene herself.

It had no equal.

And that… that was the love of a mother.

So despite all of that, she still hugged her son lovingly. She said nothing else, having already said what she needed to say.

Noah fell silent for a while, trying to keep himself from folding in on himself in shame.

Slowly, he broke the hug and faced Maryam. Their faces were close. So close that each one could scent the smell of the other.

They basked in it, unconsciously getting closer and closer, until their bodies were practically plastered onto each other.

Maryam felt the rise of heat through her body. She trembled, but she didn’t avert her eyes from Noah’s mesmerizing ones.

“I am sorry.” Noah said, tucking her hair behind her ears. It was long and pointed like an elf’s, “I am sorry for disappointing you, despite everything you have done for me.”

“I did it because I wanted it too.” Maryam answered, smiling, “I did it because I am a mother, and you are my son. It’s my duty to take care of you. And that even if I need to sacrifice a part of me.”

Noah’s body tensed at her words. Maryam raised her hands and held his cheeks between her palms.

“But that doesn’t mean what you did didn’t hurt me.”

“I know it did.” Noah nodded, voice like someone holding back cries, “And I am sorry.”

That was all he could say.

I am sorry.

Such plain words. But sometimes — or rather, most of the time — that was all one being could muster out of their mouth.

His mother saw the regret and the pain, and it was more than enough.

“I forgive you.” She said, smiling now, “I always do. Did you forget?”

Noah managed a small smile. “Yes.” He breathed, “You always do.”

The way his lips twisted into a smile made the heat inside Maryam’s body jolt to an unseen degree.

She licked her lips. Noah saw it, suppressing a gulp of anticipation.

The tension suddenly became electric, drenched in something unknown. Something forbidden.

Yet before it went into that zone, Noah smiled and kissed Maryam on the forehead, gently and lovingly, pouring into it all his feelings and uncertainties.

After pulling his lips away from her forehead, his smile widened.

“I love you, mother.” He confessed, “Without you, I wouldn’t be here, and I wouldn’t be the man I have become today.”

Maryam was dazed, but slowly, she began to smile.

“Selene is my mother too.” Noah continued, “She is different from you, no matter how similar you are. I love her, and my wives love her. That is why, mother, I don’t want you to absorb her.”

Maryam nodded, caressing his cheeks softly, “I won’t, if you don’t want it.”

She would just have to bear the feeling of incompleteness inside of her. She could do it for Brandon. For her son.

“You won’t feel incomplete.” Noah said, smiling. Then he raised Maryam’s hand and kissed it.

“Mother,”

The Soul Ruler smiled foolishly at the act while nodding, “Yes, my baby.”

“Will you bind yourself to me?”

Her face split into a smile, sensing the sudden authority wrapping around her when Noah asked the question.

She stared deep into his purple eyes, then slowly…

“Everything.”

She breathed.

“Take everything of me and bind me to you.”

So that we would never part again.

—End of Chapter 445—