novelraw Chapter 63 : That’s Enough
Chapter 63 : That’s Enough
Rooga’s POV
“Iris, come on! I’ve got more to show you!”
I tugged her hand again, half-dragging her toward the small irrigation channel I’d carved with Aqua Ball. The water glimmered faintly blue, cleaner than the river outside the walls.
“If you watch closely, I can make the current move faster—”
“That’s enough, Rooga.”
Mama’s voice cut through the air like a blade.
I froze, looking back. She stood a few paces away, arms folded, eyes sharp as steel. The kind of look that didn’t ask—it commanded.
Iris straightened immediately, bowing her head. “M-my apologies, Lady Selene. I was only curious.”
Mama’s gaze softened for a heartbeat toward Iris, then slid back to me. “Curious or not, Rooga doesn’t need to parade everything he can do. Not to anyone. Not now.”
My chest tightened. “…But—”
Her eyes narrowed further. “Enough.”
The word hit harder than any slap.
I bit my lip, staring at the dirt. Iris’s hand trembled in mine before she gently pulled free.
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“I-it’s alright,” she said quickly, her voice quiet. “What you’ve shown me is already… more than I could ever dream of. Thank you.”
I looked up at her, but her eyes weren’t mocking—they were sincere. Still, I caught the flicker of Mama’s shadow behind me, reminding me not to push.
“…Okay,” I muttered.
Maori, perched on a branch, stuck out her tongue at Mama when she wasn’t looking. “Spoilsport,” she whispered into my ear.
But I knew better. Mama’s sharp eyes weren’t just anger. They were fear. Fear that the more I showed, the more the world would want to take from us.
Selene’s POV
The guild walls smelled of smoke and steel. Iris walked at my side, her staff clutched close, her eyes still wide from yesterday.
She hadn’t stopped staring at me since.
Finally, as we reached the quest board, her words spilled out.
“Lady Selene… it’s amazing. Truly. The land you’ve nurtured. To see the Goddess of Tree return, her home rising in the borderlands of all places…”
Her voice trembled with awe. “I’ve never heard of such a feat in our time. Not even in the elven scriptures. You’ve done the impossible.”
I stopped mid-step.
My face remained calm, my lips pressed into that same unreadable line. But inside, my chest tightened.
She thought it was me.
Rooga’s smile flashed in my memory—the way he’d tugged Iris through the fields, bursting with pride, eager to show every little thing he’d done. That boy, desperate for someone to notice.
And yet here Iris was, giving the praise to me.
Iris mistook my silence as humility. She smiled, voice soft. “It suits you. Only Selene Valemont could draw the Goddess back.”
I said nothing.
Because if I opened my mouth, I feared the truth would spill out—that it wasn’t me who called the goddess, who made the land flourish, who carried a miracle in his small hands.
It was Rooga. My son.
But the world could not know that. Not yet.
“…Come,” I said at last, turning toward the gates. My voice was steady, cold. “The wolves won’t slay themselves.”
Iris hurried after me, still smiling, still carrying her beautiful misunderstanding.
And I kept my silence, even as it cut deeper than any blade.