Chapter 599: A Life Beyond the Cell

A few days later, Primrose finally received the news she had been waiting for.

Unfortunately, it was not good news.

The Holan Tribe had refused to talk things out peacefully. Instead, they had chosen to fight back and that was not even the worst part.

Solene’s investigation had uncovered something far more disturbing: Pippa was not the first child they had sold.

Over the years, several children had been secretly sold by the younger generation of the Holan Tribe. They wanted money, and after hearing stories about life outside the tribe, some of them had begun to dream about living in town and enjoying the things money could buy.

Therefore, they sold their own children to get it.

What bothered Primrose the most was how little they seemed to care about what happened afterward.

They never asked where the children were taken.

They never tried to find out whether those children ended up in warm homes with enough food to eat or somewhere far worse.

Once the children were sold, that was apparently the end of it and Primrose honestly could not understand it.

“I’m so sorry…” She looked at Pippa with pity in her eyes after asking the girl to come to her office. “I don’t think we can help you meet your family.”

Pippa slowly lowered her head. For a few seconds, she said nothing. [Maybe they really don’t want me.]

Her fingers tightened around the fabric of her dress. [Maybe it would’ve been better if I never knew anything about them in the first place.]

Ever since she had been freed from the Azmeria Palace, Pippa had tried her best to recover her lost memories.

Deep down, she had always held onto one small hope.

Maybe she had been kidnapped. Maybe somewhere out there, she had a loving family who had spent years searching for her. Parents who missed her. Siblings who wondered where she had gone.

That hope had made her want to remember.

But now, her memories had finally begun to crack open, revealing pieces of the past she had desperately wanted to find and Pippa suddenly wished they had stayed buried.

Maybe losing her memories for a second time would not be such a terrible thing after all.

“I understand, Your Majesty,” she finally said. She lowered her head even further before adding, “I appreciate everything you’ve done for us.”

Primrose took a deep breath. Her heart ached for the girl standing in front of her. What made it even worse was that Pippa did not ask a single question.

She did not ask what Primrose had learned about her parents. She did not ask where they were. She did not even ask whether they had said anything about her.

It was almost as if Pippa was afraid that hearing more would only hurt her further.

“Pippa, I know this is painful for you, but this isn’t the end of your life,” Primrose reassured her gently. “You can stay here for as long as you need. There’s no need to rush. When you’re strong enough, you can slowly start exploring the outside world on your own.”

Pippa remained quiet, but Primrose knew that the girl was listening.

Among all the young women who had been brought to the palace, Pippa was actually one of the fastest to adjust to life outside her cell.

Of course, she still had a long way to go.

Sometimes, even a sudden noise was enough to make her flinch. She was also still nervous around strangers and rarely spoke for long unless it was with Primrose or Solene.

But compared to how she had been when she first arrived, Pippa had already made a lot of progress.

Every now and then, she would help the palace maids with simple tasks. Other times, she would wander into the kitchen and quietly stand near the door, watching the cooks prepare all kinds of delicious food.

Sometimes, the cooks would even give her something to taste.

Those might have seemed like small things to everyone else, but to Primrose, they meant a lot.

Pippa was slowly learning how to live again.

Naturally, everyone in the palace felt sorry for the young women after learning what they had gone through. And ever since Primrose had asked them to smile more often and be gentler around them, the palace staff had been doing their best to make them feel safe.

Out of the fifteen young women, only four had managed to reunite with their families.

Even then, they could not leave the palace just yet. For the time being, their families had to come and visit them there while they slowly adjusted to everything.

As for the others, their situations were far more complicated.

Some, like Pippa, had been sold by their own families. Others had already lost their parents, and the relatives they had left were unwilling to take them in.

After all, these young women had spent years locked away from the outside world. Many of them struggled to speak to strangers, became frightened easily, and still needed help with even the simplest parts of daily life.

Not every family was willing to deal with that.

Sadly, the situation was not much different for the women who remained in the Azmeria Kingdom under the care of the Duke of Illvaris.

Most of them had also failed to find their families, leaving them completely dependent on Lazarus for the time being.

Fortunately, Lazarus did not mind.

In fact, he seemed more comfortable knowing that the women were under his protection. He did not trust the Emperor of Vellmoria enough to leave their safety in his hands, especially after Edmund had secretly traveled to Illvaris and told him what he knew about the Emperor.

“I can’t keep troubling you forever, Your Majesty,” Pippa suddenly said.

Before Primrose could respond, Pippa quickly continued, “Please… you have to let me work in the palace. I think I’ll feel safer here if I have something to do.”

Her voice was nervous, but there was a hint of desperation behind it. [If I keep being useless, Her Majesty will probably get tired of me someday.]