How I Ended Up Becoming the Imperial Princess While Trying to Pay Off an Illegal Loan - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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001.
“Ah, that’s refreshing. It’s been a while since I’ve really gotten a good workout.”
Leaving the Public Training Ground in the Capital.
Tamia, who had worked up a pleasant sweat again today, hummed to herself and spurred her horse onward.
Her destination was a modest Town House on the outskirts of the Capital—a new place she’d moved into a few weeks prior.
“You really do need to move your body now and then!”
Tamia’s spirits soared, and she was about to draw her sword and let out a cry as she always did back home when she charged forward—
“Oh, right. Father told me not to cause any trouble.”
She shook her head and resumed holding the reins properly instead.
Not long ago, the Guard Corps had come after her for waving a sword around on the street, and she’d nearly ended up spending a night in jail instead of at home.
Apparently she’d been spreading unease among the residents.
This was what she hated about the Capital. Where was the freedom to do as you pleased?
Fortunately, her father, Count Arderin, had rushed over the moment he heard and managed to get her released before that night in a cell became reality.
“Time for your well-behaved daughter to head home!”
Tamia urged her horse faster.
She was already looking forward to a good dinner, a long soak in hot water, and collapsing into bed.
But it turned out her father was the one making trouble.
“Hm? Why is it so noisy?”
Tamia blinked as she dismounted and approached the residence.
Her father stood before a group of strangers, looking flustered and tongue-tied.
“Y-you’re telling me I need to produce a thousand Der by next week?”
“It’s actually a pittance compared to the original sum, if you ask me. If you can’t pay, we’ll be seizing the residence in the Arderin Territory.”
“B-but how am I supposed to raise such an enormous sum in just a week?”
“That’s hardly our concern. We’ll be back in seven days.”
“Wait, if you’d just hear me out for a moment—”
Count Arderin reached out desperately, but they brushed him aside as if their business were concluded and left him there.
“Father? Who were those people? We have a debt?”
Tamia’s eyes widened as she dismounted. The Count turned to face her with a half-dazed expression.
“…Ah, you’re here, daughter.”
“How much do we owe? Is it a lot? If I’d known we were having money troubles, I wouldn’t have bought that new sword from Ripel’s Smithy last week!”
The blade had fit so perfectly in my hand that I just had to have it—was it really that expensive?
“The sword is fine. The problem is…”
“The problem is?”
“I borrowed some money to buy this Town House, you see…”
“…Borrowed?”
“It turns out the lender wasn’t a legitimate bank at all, but an illegal loan shark! I’m so sorry, Tamia!”
He collapsed onto the bare ground.
“If I can’t come up with a thousand Der by next week, they’ll seize the estate back home! What am I to do?”
Hearing her father’s anguished cry, Tamia stood in thought.
…And thought some more.
……
‘Nothing’s coming to me!’
Of course it wasn’t—thinking was simply not Tamia’s strength!
“Wait, Father.”
Watching her father break down completely, Tamia murmured.
“I’ll earn the money.”
Times like this called for brawn, not brains.
“You’ll… earn it?”
The Count, who had been striking the ground, froze mid-motion.
Just after arriving in the Capital, his daughter had demolished someone’s fence and he’d had to pay damages.
Then she’d beaten someone senseless and he’d had to pay again.
Even just recently, she’d been arrested by the Guard Corps and caused such a commotion that he’d shelled out a fortune once more.
He’d spent plenty of money because of his daughter’s antics, but the idea that this disaster magnet could actually go out and earn money was utterly beyond his comprehension.
“T-Tamia. Please don’t strain yourself—”
“I’ll be back soon. Father, you trust me, right?”
Tamia remounted her horse and quickly disappeared from Count Arderin’s sight.
The Count stared after the dust her horse had kicked up, muttering helplessly.
“Our daughter grew up only in the countryside with such a pure, simple mind…”
What if she gets completely swindled somewhere?
His voice scattered weakly into the air.
* * *
Though Tamia had set out from the house with bold determination, she had never earned a single coin in her life, and now she found herself adrift in an unfamiliar capital, unsure where to turn.
A stranger in this city, no less.
“Hmm… should I try applying as a maid in some noble household?”
But she’d never heard anyone mention maid wages of a thousand Der.
“Or… a mercenary company?”
Mercenary companies paid well enough, certainly. But Tamia was a rank beginner—she hadn’t even registered her name in the mercenary world.
In a profession where reputation was everything, building up her market value would take forever. The house would be seized a hundred times over before she made headway.
“Tch. Can’t be helped, I suppose.”
Tamia decisively scratched out the mercenary company idea and turned her thoughts to the next possibility.
“Hmm, so where should I…wait.”
Her gaze fell suddenly on a monthly magazine lying scattered on the ground, and an advertisement jumped out at her.
“The Fifteenth Annual ‘
Spousal Love Protection

Monster Hunting
Tournament’ is now accepting entries. The prize is… two thousand Der?!”
That’s it!
Tamia dismounted from her horse in one swift motion and snatched up the monthly magazine.
[…This tournament is held annually by the Empire to foster the increasingly waning bonds of marriage. Husband and wife must capture as many monsters as possible within the allotted time. However, befitting the theme of ‘fostering spousal love,’ if the wife receives even the smallest wound, the couple is immediately disqualified….]
The fine print explained the tournament’s rules in detail, but Tamia’s mind filtered out everything except what mattered.
Two thousand Der. That was all that registered, along with the tournament date printed below.
Words like “spousal love” and “wife” looked like nothing more than decorative patterns on the page.
“Two thousand Der in prize money? Even after paying off my urgent debts, I’d have money left over.”
But when is this held?
“Goodness, just three days away! The timing couldn’t be better. I need to register right now!”
Tamia tore the advertisement section from the magazine, clenched it in her fist, and vaulted back onto her horse.
With no husband—nor even a boyfriend—to her name, she galloped off alone toward the tournament registration office.
* * *
“Wait, hold on! I’m here to register for the tournament!”
The sun was sinking low on the horizon.
The bureaucrat who had just finished clearing his desk and was about to leave for the day caught sight of a woman sprinting toward him and frowned deeply.
“It’s two thousand Der prize money, right? It’s the monster hunting tournament, right?! I want to enter!!”
The woman leapt from her horse and charged toward the registration desk with such headlong momentum that she nearly knocked it over.
“Your name, please?”
The bureaucrat, irritated at having his departure delayed, asked with visible indifference.
“Tamia Arderin.”
“And your husband’s name?”
“My husband?”
Tamia—the woman in question—turned back to the bureaucrat with a bewildered expression.
“Why would I need a husband?”
The bureaucrat suppressed a fresh wave of irritation and explained methodically.
“The tournament you wish to enter is the Spousal Love Protection Monster Hunting Tournament, and participants must be a married couple attending together.”
“What?! There’s no such thing! I’m unmarried!”
“Without a husband, you cannot participate in this tournament.”
The two thousand Der seemed to sprout wings and flutter away into the sky.
‘No, no, no! My prize money! My two thousand Der!’
Tamia stretched her hands toward the heavens in despair, but then her expression hardened with resolve. She clenched her fists and spoke to the bureaucrat with fierce determination.
“I’ll find a husband in no time. You can’t start the tournament without me, understand? You got that?”
The bureaucrat, too stunned to speak, watched as
Tamia climbed straight back onto her horse and took off again at breakneck speed.
“But… who am I going to marry?”
Having charged forward on sheer momentum, Tamia slowed her pace slightly as the question finally caught up with her.
“Well, if it’s a monster hunting tournament, I should marry someone who actually knows how to use a sword, right?”
If there was anywhere in the capital where skilled swordsmen gathered….
“There’s really nowhere else to look.”
* * *
Tamia’s first destination was the Mercenary Guild—the place where the Empire’s strongest mercenaries were known to congregate.
But…
“Hello! I came to find a really strong mercenary!”
“Welcome, friend. Mercenaries start at fifty Der minimum. What rank are you after?”
“W-wait, I have to pay? But I don’t have any money?!”
With no coin to her name, Tamia was promptly shown the door of the Mercenary Guild.
Her eyes fell next on the tavern standing right beside it—and it was packed with people.
‘Everyone gathered in there must be incredibly strong mercenaries!’
Tamia kicked through the tavern door and raised her voice above the noise.
“Who here wants to marry me?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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