How I Ended Up Becoming the Imperial Princess While Trying to Pay Off an Illegal Loan - Chapter 3

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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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003.
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Leon hurried Tamia—who was spouting utter nonsense—out of the Training Ground.
Though in the process, he had to endure the satisfied gazes of the Griffin Squadron members.
It was the sort of thing he could handle lightly by barking a few orders at them when they showed up tomorrow.
“So you’re saying you’re in debt?”
“Yeah. It came up suddenly, but if I don’t pay 1,000 Der by next week, they’re going to take my house.”
Tamia rattled on about her family troubles with a gloomy expression.
“But then I happened to pass by and saw that this competition’s prize money is a whopping 2,000 Der!”
“Prize money?”
Leon accepted the crumpled piece of paper she pulled from her pocket.
“It’s a Monster-hunting tournament for married couples to enter together. But I don’t have a husband.”
“…So you want me to marry you and enter the tournament to claim the prize?”
“Oh, you actually seem pretty smart! Quick on the uptake, huh?!”
Tamia, delighted, suddenly grabbed his sleeve and shook his arm back and forth enthusiastically.
“Let’s get married! The tournament’s tomorrow, so it’ll only take a day. Once the tournament ends and we get the prize money, I’ll divorce you right away. Oh, and we split the prize fifty-fifty. So? Not bad, right?”
“Wait, maybe we should talk about this a little more…”
“Goodness, look at the time! We’re in trouble!”
The sun, which had been precariously balanced on the ridge of Mountaintop, finally slipped below the horizon.
Tamia whistled urgently, and the horse she’d ridden in on came trotting over at once.
She vaulted onto the horse, then extended her hand toward Leon.
“Grab on.”
Leon looked up at her with a bewildered expression.
“…?”
“Why are you so slow? Come on, we need to go register the marriage!”
Leon, who had never actually agreed to marry her, found this situation deeply disorienting.
‘Has she still not realized who I am?’
A breeze ruffled past Leon’s head lightly.
Only the Imperial Family possessed hair this vivid and luminous a shade of gold.
But unfortunately, his companion seemed not to have noticed his true identity yet.
Moreover, she didn’t seem to have heard at all the “Your Highness” that the Griffin Squadron members had cried out so readily—which explained why she was still speaking to him in casual speech throughout.
‘Is she some freshly arrived country girl?’
But it was hard to dismiss her as merely a country girl when the sensation of meeting Sword Aura with Sword Aura remained so vivid.
A Swordmaster. This woman was undoubtedly a Swordmaster.
‘An unregistered Swordmaster in the Empire.’
Curiosity stirred in him. Along with it, a strange playfulness rose to the surface.
He found himself wanting to learn more about this woman.
He even wanted to see the shocked expression on her face—the way she’d panic and fumble—when she discovered that Leon was actually a prince.
‘Playing along for a while wouldn’t be the worst idea.’
Leon pulled up the hood to hide his hair, then mounted the horse without her assistance.
However, he mounted not in front of Tamia, but behind her.
“Huh? Why are you sitting in back? This is my horse!”
“Didn’t you say we were late? Is the Temple where we need to go?”
“Ah—gah!”
“Hold on tight. We’re off.”
The horse Leon was riding surged forward without hesitation toward the Temple.
* * *
“Wow, you’re amazing at riding! And it’s not even your horse!”
Tamia was in the highest spirits imaginable.
The day before the tournament, she’d not only managed to find an “incredibly strong person” by sheer chance, but that person had agreed to marry her willingly.
Though the current scene of her sitting as if riding someone else’s horse bothered her a little.
‘I found a husband candidate, so I can let that slide!’
Crossing blades with him, she could tell his skill was remarkable.
The fact that he could use Sword Aura meant he was definitely a Swordmaster.
A tournament with a team of two Smwordmasters? This was guaranteed first place.
“We’re here.”
As Leon reined in the horse before the Temple, Tamia leaped down and urged him forward.
“Come on, let’s go get the Marriage Registration Certificate written up!”
Leon followed her obediently.
The marriage registration process turned out to be simpler than expected.
All they had to do was fill in their names on the Marriage Registration Certificate and submit it at the Temple’s registration window.
“I’ll write first.”
Tamia quickly retrieved the document from the counter and wrote down her name.
[Tamia Arderin]
‘So she was the young lady of the Arderin household.’
The Arderin family had been devoted to Monster-hunting in the borderlands before Leon founded the Griffin Squadron.
‘I think I’ve heard rumors about a daughter in the family.’
Since she hadn’t made her formal debut in the Capital, little was known about her.
But if she resembled her father, Count Arderin, then her formidable skill made perfect sense.
“Come on, write your name too. We’re running out of time.”
Tamia glanced at the sky growing darker beyond the window and urged Leon on.
‘A marriage registration.’
When Imperial Family members married, it was a grand affair for the empire—certainly not something to be conducted like selling it off for a mere 2,000 Der.
But the empire destroyed all records of marriage the moment a divorce was filed.
If he took the prize and divorced as this woman suggested, there would be no record anywhere that he had ever been married.
‘In that case, there’s no harm in going along with it lightly.’
More than anything, Leon was genuinely curious to see how Tamia’s prowess—which she’d demonstrated during their sparring—would translate in actual Monster combat.
Leon took the pen and paper from Tamia and wrote his name boldly across the document.
[Leon Ignatuz Valentis]
A surname bestowed only upon the Imperial Family of the Valentis Empire.
Soon this woman would realize just how grave an offense she’d committed against Imperial royalty and would be mortified.
‘She seems to have made a mistake out of ignorance, so perhaps I can forgive her once… wait?’
“All done? Shall we submit it?”
With a cheerful expression, Tamia snatched the Marriage Registration Certificate from Leon and shoved it straight through the Temple’s marriage registration window.
‘She didn’t even look at my name?’
Too astounded to speak.
“W-w-well, you’ve come in p-person to register your m-marriage?”
The young priest sitting at the counter went pale upon seeing the names written on the certificate and shot up from his seat.
“Does anyone actually have someone else submit their marriage registration for them?”
“N-no, that’s not what I—this person is…….”
“Please issue the Marriage Relationship Proof Certificate right away. We’re in quite a hurry, you see?”
The priest looked incredulous, glancing back and forth between Leon and Tamia, but her insistence left him no choice but to issue the certificate.
“Perfect, now all we need to do is register for the tournament. Let’s go, husband!”
“……Husband?”
“Until the tournament ends, you’re my husband!”
The moment Leon heard this unfamiliar address, Tamia seized his wrist firmly and took off running.
“Cutting through alleys is faster than riding a horse in wide circles!”
“Even if we just let go and run…….”
“If we miss registration and lose the prize, will my husband take responsibility?”
Tamia flared up in anger and twisted his wrist even tighter.
She gripped with such force that his wrist began to ache.
Yet the sensation wasn’t unpleasant. The feel of her palm against his skin was oddly vivid.
The calluses of a swordsman’s hands, the powerful grip, and the strangely warm body heat…….
But Leon had no time to linger on the feeling before Tamia picked up her pace.
Through alleys where shadows stretched long as the sun sank, two figures with swords at their hips ran side by side.
Whenever they encountered a high wall blocking their path.
“You can leap over this, right? You’re an incredibly strong man, after all.”
Whenever they met a massive wagon straddling the road.
“You can bound over it, right? You’re such a powerful man!”
In that way, the two of them covered a distance that would take ten minutes on horseback in just five minutes.
“Huff, huff…… Getting married is exhausting!”
“Hah…… Tell me about it.”
The tournament registration booth came into view in the distance.
Fortunately, since it was the last day of registration, they seemed to be accepting entries later than usual.
But even that deadline was running out, and just as an official began to fold up the tent.
“Wait, please!”
Tamia sprinted forward and rammed the registration desk just as she had before.
“I told you I’d bring back my husband, so you said to wait!”
The official preparing the documents recognized Tamia and looked startled as he asked.
“Did you truly find yourself a husband?”
“Do you think I’d lie to you?”
“Then… the man in that black hood is your husband?”
“That’s right. I even brought the Marriage Relationship Proof Certificate… wait.”
But no matter how thoroughly she searched her belongings, the certificate was nowhere to be found.

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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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