How I Ended Up Becoming the Imperial Princess While Trying to Pay Off an Illegal Loan - Chapter 17

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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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017.
“And you there, armorer!”
“Yes, Your Highness!”
“Give me two spears.”
Moments later, two thick spears as heavy as a man’s forearm were gripped firmly in Tamia’s hands.
“Let’s go.”
With grim determination etched across her face, Tamia pressed forward in the direction the earth had been torn away.
Whoosh. Whoosh.
Crack, bang!
The ground trembled right before them.
At last, the massive form of a Monster emerged into their line of sight.
It was a lump of mud that crawled on four arms, its outer hide so hardened that even a blade’s edge appeared unable to pierce it.
“……So that’s the one.”
Leon, who had been close on Tamia’s heels, swallowed hard.
“Seen one before?”
“Three years ago I encountered something identical. Three squad members died that time. It wasn’t an easy opponent.”
“No one dies today.”
Tamia spoke as though issuing a decree, her grip on the spears tightening.
Then, beyond the Monster, a hoarse voice rang out.
“Hey, over here! Come this way, you filthy beast!”
“Must be knights from the Cades Belt.”
The people screaming until their throats were raw were clearly knights tasked with luring the Monster.
“The Griffin Squad has arrived! You can rest easy now!”
When Leon’s ringing voice reached the knights, those exhausted from days and nights battling the Monster released sighs of relief.
“Reinforcements! Reinforcements are here!”
Watching the tension drain from the knights as they collapsed to the ground, Tamia stepped forward.
“Hey, Monster! Look over here!”
The stone Tamia hurled flew an enormous distance, striking the Monster’s head dead on.
Clang!
―Screeeee!
The Monster, struck on the head, emitted a grotesque cry and slowly turned around.
“That’s right—now, how about you try me?”
Tamia grinned wickedly, grasped her spears, and charged toward the Monster. Startled, Leon bolted after her.
“W-wait……!”
Tamia finally closed within five meters of the Monster.
―Groooowl!
The Monster’s eyes flared upon spotting Tamia. It moved forward slowly, swinging its arms leisurely toward her.
“Ha! You’re too slow to catch me like that!”
Tamia nimbly sidestepped the building-sized arm and drove one of her spears deep into the Monster’s forearm.
A metallic screech erupted as the steel-like hide split open, the spear embedding itself firmly.
“Y-Your Highness! How on earth……!”
“The o-outer hide shouldn’t be that weak……!”
While the Griffin Squad’s voices rang out in shock from all sides, the Monster shrieked grotesquely and lifted its arm skyward.
―Shrieeek!
Clinging tightly to the spear, Tamia was suddenly hoisted into the air along with the Monster’s movement.
“Be careful, Tamia!”
Leon’s voice rose involuntarily.
If she lost her grip and fell from that height……!
“Hehe, don’t worry!”
Tamia glanced back with a carefree grin, then drove her second spear into the Monster’s shoulder blade.
Thunk—
Then, bracing herself against that spear, she wrenched the first one free.
“……!”
It was a feat bordering on acrobatics.
Green blood sprayed from where the spear had been embedded.
“Watch out—if that blood touches you, your flesh will melt slowly!”
As she leaped toward where the next spear had lodged, Tamia offered her warning to the knights and Griffin Squad still gaping at her from below.
And then, another thunk.
By the third attempt, Tamia had already landed upon the Monster’s shoulder.
“Nothing to it, really.”
She laughed, waving her hand toward Griffin Squad and Leon.
Then the monster thrashed about deliberately, as if on purpose.
“Aah!”
In an instant, Tamia found herself dangling in midair, clinging to her spear with one hand.
“Tamia!”
Leon cried out in alarm and lunged forward, but the monster vomited up a thick, molten stream of lava.
Seeing the scalding vapors rising from it, Leon faltered and had no choice but to stop in his tracks.
“Hold on just a moment—I’m coming for you!”
“No, don’t come!”
Tamia shouted at Leon, then stretched her other arm and gripped the spear with both hands, hooking her legs around it.
In a heartbeat, she pulled herself back onto the monster’s shoulder, wrenched the embedded spear free, and drove it straight into the creature’s ear.
The monster’s anguished shriek echoed across the battlefield.
—Shrieeeeeek!
At last Tamia reached the monster’s head. The massive skull bore a single, blazing orange eye.
The orb, the size of a human head, rolled to track her every movement.
“Well then, shall we finish this?”
Tamia thrust her spear skyward triumphantly, then drove it down directly into the monster’s eye.
—Shrieeeeeak!
The creature thrashed and shrieked, but this time Tamia didn’t let go of the spear.
She shifted her weight onto the left spear, poured all her strength through the right, and bent backward with the full force of her body.
Crunch!
The orange eye was torn from its socket, roots and all.
“Ah—refreshing!”
As Tamia released her grip, the eyeball rolled across the ground still impaled on the spear.
It bounced in place as if trying to return to its socket, but it didn’t have the strength to launch itself into the air.
—Ughhhh, ugh….
The monster flailed its arms across the ground searching for its eye when Tamia called out.
“Trying to put it back? That’s not happening!”
Still clinging to the monster’s body by way of the spear, Tamia finally drew a blade from her belt.
“Let’s see what this new Renowned Blade can do.”
The sword in Tamia’s hand carved down vertically through the hollow socket.
Slash!
Green blood sprayed forth like a fountain. Tamia nimbly dodged the steaming fluid and slashed horizontally across the same wound.
The monster’s movements grew sluggish.
Having flailed its four arms one moment, the creature at last collapsed backward. The orange eye that had rolled across the ground lost its luster.
The battle was over.
* * *
Meanwhile, in a marquis’s mansion in the Capital.
Lady Grita, wife of Earl Arderin, was attending a tea party among peers of similar age.
‘Ugh, this is dreadfully uncomfortable. Why must they cut these things so tight?’
The party dress, which she rarely wore, felt terribly constrictive, but she was now the Crown Princess’s mother.
She couldn’t very well appear at a tea party in her usual training clothes or casual indoor dress.
‘For Tamia’s sake, I have to bear it.’
Even though it was only a one-year marriage, she couldn’t fail to see it through or have Tamia cast aside from the Crown Princess’s position because of her.
The hostess, Lady Huzhou, lifted her teacup with practiced grace. The slight angle of her pinky finger was nothing short of art.
“Thank you so much for gracing us with your presence today. I’ve had tea leaves shipped in from the region around the Astel Sea—they’re quite rare.”
Grita let the pleasantries wash over her while alternating her gaze between Lady Huzhou’s fingertips and her own.
She was determined to mimic the elegant angle somehow.
Then it happened.
“So sorry I’m late! I got held up hearing the most extraordinary news!”
A woman who had arrived late to the tea party was breathing heavily.
“My dear, what on earth could it be?”
“Would you believe—a monster has appeared near the Capital!”
“What?”
The ladies gathered in the room began to murmur among themselves.
“We’ve never had a monster appear near the Capital before, have we?”
“Griffin Squad must act at once!”
“Surely they’ve already mobilized to eliminate it on the Capital’s outskirts?”
At that moment, Duchess Dupont, who had been sitting quietly in the corner, spoke up.
“But if Griffin Squad has been entirely deployed, there’s no one left to defend the Capital, is there?”
“All of them…… gone?”
The noblewomen’s faces drained of color in an instant.
“That’s absurd! The entire garrison mobilized? Then who’s defending the Capital?”
“This time, the Second Prince showed poor judgment. He should have left troops to garrison the Capital!”
“Exactly. If the commander of the Griffin Squad lacks such basic discernment, what hope is there?”
Public opinion began to shift, settling on the conviction that Leon had made a grave miscalculation.
“Could it be that he used the Monster extermination as a pretext for a pleasure journey?”
“That does sound plausible. I hear the Crown Princess—newly married, no less—departed with him. But honestly, can anyone believe the Crown Princess actually went to slay Monsters? It must have been a holiday!”
The moment Tamia’s name entered the conversation, Grita’s fingertips began to tremble.

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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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