CHAPTER 265: LOYALTY WITHOUT CHAINS

"I don’t have enough words to express my gratitude to you, Your Majesty," Hazelle said as she dropped to her knees the moment Primrose stepped out of the greenhouse. "It feels like I’m still dreaming."

Behind Primrose, the soldiers were carrying away Silas, who was already on the brink of death, perhaps only moments away from taking his last breath.

But Primrose didn’t even bother to glance in his direction because the only thing she cared about now was Hazelle.

As Salem once told her, slaves bound by a slave seal would stop aging. They stayed frozen in time, trapped at the same age they were when the seal was placed on them.

In Hazelle’s case, she had been sealed when she was only 17. Her real age, however, was around the same as Primrose, or rather, two years older.

Hazelle was 24 years old, yet she had been trapped in her 17-year-old body for years.

To most people, that might sound like a beautiful gift, staying forever young and never worrying about aging.

But for Hazelle, it had been a living nightmare.

Her youthful face wasn’t a gift, it was a constant reminder of the slave seal that had imprisoned her.

It symbolized the way she was stripped of her autonomy, unable to make her own decisions, not even allowed to grow older without her master’s permission.

It was the symbol of the oppression she had endured for so long.

That’s why, unlike most people, Hazelle didn’t dream of staying young. Her dream was to have the privilege of seeing her reflection slowly change, of watching her own face age with time.

"You’re not dreaming," Primrose said softly, her eyes full of warmth as she looked down at Hazelle. "You’re really free now. You don’t need to wait for anyone to give you permission to speak or to act."

"You can do anything you want, Hazelle," she added. "You get to decide from now on."

Since the seal had just been broken, Hazelle’s appearance hadn’t changed much. But she had grown slightly taller than before, and in no time, her body would begin aging again, growing into the woman she was meant to become.

"Thank you, Your Majesty," Hazelle said, reaching out to hold Primrose’s hands. She gripped them tightly, tears streaming silently down her cheeks. "I’ll never forget what you’ve done for me."

Some people believed fear was the only way to earn loyalty, but those people were fools.

There were better and stronger ways to gain true loyalty.

Not through fear or not through force, but through kindness, through trust, and through giving someone a reason to believe in you.

When someone felt protected in your presence, when they knew you would stand by them no matter what, that’s when loyalty began to grow.

It didn’t come from threats or punishments, it came from trust.

Hazelle might no longer have a slave seal on her body, but without realizing it, she would always carry the debt of gratitude she owed to Primrose.

She had gained her freedom, and in return, Primrose had earned her loyalty.

There was no guarantee Hazelle would ever be useful in the future, but it was far too soon to judge someone based on what they could or couldn’t offer.

Sometimes, the most unexpected people turned out to be the greatest and most loyal allies, especially those who had known what it felt like to be powerless.

"But, Your Majesty," Hazelle suddenly said, "I don’t understand. Why did you lie to me?"

"You told me you needed me to outsmart Silas, but ..." Her voice trailed off for a moment, glancing at the soldiers dragging Silas’s body inside a sack. "You didn’t need me at all."

"Why... why would you save someone like me, when I had nothing to offer in return?" she asked.

In truth, the deal they made back in the bathroom had been nothing more than a way to comfort Hazelle in the moment.

To be fair, Primrose had genuinely hoped Hazelle could help her uncover information about Silas, especially since she thought Salem might not have found much.

But as it turned out, Salem had managed to dig up far more than she ever expected, and eventually, she no longer needed Hazelle.

"Sometimes ..." Primrose paused, trying to find the right words to soften Hazelle’s heart, "we don’t need a reason to help someone."

That sentence sounded good enough.

Before Hazelle could ask more questions that would only give Primrose a headache, she quickly added, "There are still so many things we need to talk about, especially regarding your future, but how about we take a break first?"

"I’ve already asked the maids to prepare a new room for you to rest," Primrose said with a warm smile. "Don’t worry about anything else for now, just enjoy your freedom."

Hazelle looked like she wanted to say something, something that, judging by the look on her face, would lead to a long explanation and give Primrose a headache.

So before she could say a word, Primrose quickly turned to Callen. "Please take me back to my room," she said softly, then looked at Solene. "And Lady Solene, would you mind showing Hazelle to hers?"

As for Callen and Salem, their minds were still filled with questions and confusion. But after watching her interaction with Hazelle, they seemed to have come to a simple conclusion about everything that had happened that day.

"Lady Raven," Primrose called out. She glanced around, looking for Salem. But of course, he was nowhere to be seen. He was probably still hiding in his room after being forced to stay up all night brewing poison. "Would you come to my room now?"

"Of course, Your Majesty," Raven replied without hesitation.

Now that the whole mess with Silas had ended, Primrose knew something else was waiting for her just around the corner.

Primrose had promised Edmund that she would explain everything to him, but she still hadn’t figured out how to break it all down.

How do you tell your husband that you used to be dead?

That you remembered an entire lifetime he didn’t know about?

That you could read his thoughts?

"Oh! Your Majesty!" Callen suddenly stopped pushing her wheelchair, jolting Primrose out of her thoughts. "You almost forgot your doll!"

Primrose blinked. "What? What doll?"

He pointed back at the greenhouse. "The bunny doll under the table near the hourglass. Didn’t you leave it there?"

Primrose frowned. "You saw me arrive with Lady Solene. I wasn’t carrying any doll, so how could it be mine?" She groaned, frustrated. "Why didn’t you mention this earlier?"

He took a few nervous steps back. [Why is Her Majesty suddenly angry with me?! Is it because I left her doll down there?]

Primrose hadn’t even noticed a doll was there!

"I ... I really thought you were the one who put it there," Callen said. "Would you like me to get it for you?"

Primrose groaned and slapped her forehead, once ... twice ... over and over, while the others stared, completely confused as to why their queen was reacting this way to a bunny doll.

After smacking her forehead more than ten times, it finally hit her, something had been missing from her room that morning.

Bunnie usually sat on her bed, nestled among the pillows. But today, she hadn’t seen it or rather, she had assumed the doll was just buried under the pile of cushions, as usual.

That happened a lot, so she didn’t think much of it.

No, no, no.

Stupid! She had been so stupid!

She had even left that doll on her bed while talking to Salem and Raven last night!

How could she forget that the doll was actually a spy tool Edmund had used to watch over her?

The pain from the poison must’ve scrambled her brain!

Or maybe, she had simply grown too used to the doll’s presence and forgotten that it wasn’t just a harmless toy, but something Edmund had been using to keep an eye on her from afar.

Wait ... wait.

If the doll had still been functioning as intended, didn’t that mean Edmund had heard everything she discussed with Salem and Raven last night?

He would’ve heard about her dying in her first life and being reborn in this one.

But then, why didn’t he say anything? Not only that, but he hadn’t even thought anything suspicious. Not a single stray thought about it had crossed his mind!

Primrose stared at the ground in horror, wondering just how much her husband really knew and how much he had been hiding all along.

Even though Edmund was known for overthinking, always having countless things swirling in his head, something like this—finding out that his wife had once died and come back to life— should’ve taken up all the space in his mind, right?

How could anyone possibly learn a secret that huge and then not think about it at all?

It made no sense.

That’s when Primrose realized something terrifying: The reason she couldn’t always read Edmund’s thoughts wasn’t because his mind was too busy, but it was because he was hiding it on purpose.