How I Ended Up Becoming the Imperial Princess While Trying to Pay Off an Illegal Loan - Chapter 6

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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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006.
Tamia and Leon’s gazes collided in mid-air.
[Our dashing groom has been wearing that black hood since earlier, so let’s have him remove it!]
“Take it off, take it off!”
As the audience’s cheers grew louder, Leon’s expression grew steadily more rigid.
If it became known that the Empire’s second prince had entered into a fake marriage for prize money, next month’s headline would be splashed across the front page in glorious fashion.
[Imperial Treasury in Question? Prince Leon of the Second Succession Resorts to Fake Marriage for Prize Money!]
The mere thought of it was ghastly.
Tamia found herself equally tormented.
‘Oh gods! A year of marriage?! That means I’ll definitely get caught by Father, and he’ll absolutely kill me for getting married without permission!’
Yet she couldn’t simply forfeit first place—the prize money was too substantial.
As Tamia’s pupils darted wildly between money and freedom, it happened.
“Screeeech!”
A kangaroo-shaped monster that had been lurking behind the podium shot toward Leon’s back like a cannonball.
Before Leon could even dodge, the creature’s front leg hooked his hood with the precision of a fisherman’s cast.
Whoosh!
The hood tore away before he could react, revealing brilliant golden hair.
“…!”
“What, what?! Where was it hiding?”
Tamia, startled, rushed forward and drove the monster into the ground. It let out no cry before dissolving into smoke and vanishing.
Poof!
“Whew, everyone! Scared you, didn’t I? My apologies. I thought I’d dealt with all of them earlier.”
Tamia brushed off her clothes and made an apologetic gesture toward the audience.
But something about their reaction seemed off.
“….”
“….”
“Why is everyone silent?”
Even the announcer stood frozen, his mouth hanging open.
“You all? Did everyone get hit with Paralysis Magic or something? What’s going on?”
Tamia approached the announcer and tapped his face lightly.
Pat, pat.
The announcer finally snapped back to awareness, stammering out words.
[Y-Your Highness?! W-why are you, why are you here, here like thiiiis?!]
“Huh? Your Highness?”
Tamia, alone in her confusion, looked back and forth between Leon and the announcer with a bewildered expression.
“Where’s the prince?”
[N-no, isn’t he standing right there?! Your husband, ma’am!!]
“That brilliant blonde hair, those vivid crimson eyes, that extraordinary Swordsmanship….”
“It’s unmistakable—Second Prince Leon!”
The audience began to stir.
“W-what, what did you say?”
Only then did Tamia grasp the situation.
Now that she thought about it, Mother had mentioned something about how blonde hair and crimson eyes were symbols of the Imperial House.
She also dimly recalled Father saying that the commander of the Griffin Order was the Empire’s second prince.
She’d dismissed it as information with no practical use and simply erased it from her mind….
“You lied to me! You never said you were a prince!!”
Tamia’s eyes went wide as saucers and she charged at Leon, hammering his chest with her fists.
“Wait, hold on! I didn’t mean to trick you—”
Leon, panicked, tried to grab her arms, but he couldn’t overcome her tremendous strength.
“How could you trick me into marriage? You should have told me you were a prince from the start!”
With each blow, a shock rippled through his ribs as if they might crack.
Leon hastily retreated, trying to defend himself.
“I never hid anything, really—”
Honestly, he felt wronged.
He’d never concealed his golden hair, the Imperial House’s symbol, from Tamia, nor had he hidden his name on the marriage certificate.
Dozens of Griffin Order knights had been calling him “Your Highness” all along—he’d simply filtered it out himself—and now he was somehow at fault?
“This is ridiculous! You tricked an innocent girl into becoming the Crown Princess! Me, the Crown Princess! I absolutely hate it!”
Tamia lowered her fists and instead started pulling at her own hair.
Facing her vehement displeasure, Leon felt something stir uncomfortably within him.
“…Is it really something to hate that much?”
“Of course! Look, if I become Crown Princess, I’ll have to move into the Imperial Palace and live there! Every single day trapped in those ridiculous flowing gowns, dragged to tedious parties—it’s nothing but a gilded prison!”
Tamia, who had been shrieking these complaints, suddenly stopped dead in her tracks.
“…Salt. Please.”
“What?”
“Could you give me some salt?”
[Salt, did you say?]
“That’s definitely a monster wearing the Crown Prince’s face. I need to throw salt all over it to drive it out! My husband can’t possibly be the Crown Prince. Get out of him right now!!”
On the stage nearby, complimentary packets of Pink Salt had been arranged as participation gifts for all the contestants—already wrapped in elegant pouches.
Tamia snatched up one of the pouches with practiced speed, grabbed a fistful of salt from inside, and hurled it directly at Leon.
“Begone! Crown Prince, begone!”
[P-please, Your Highness, calm down!]
The host, alarmed, rushed over and tried to restrain Tamia. Regardless of their marriage, what kind of outburst was this toward His Highness the Crown Prince?
Then Tamia threw down her pouch, and her body began to shake with sobs.
“I n-need to do regular Swordsmanship training, and ride horses across wide fields, and sometimes go out hunting Monsters and swing my sword to my heart’s content… but if I become Crown Princess, I can’t do any of that, can I? Can I?! Sniff.”
The audience began to stir at Tamia’s intense reaction.
“My, it seems His Highness has been hiding his true identity all this time.”
“I’d probably have fainted on the spot if I’d found out my husband was the Crown Prince.”
While sympathy for Tamia began to dominate the crowd’s sentiment,
Leon was already deeply wounded.
Tamia was the first person in his entire life to openly despise the position of Crown Princess with such passionate vehemence.
“But you can do Swordsmanship training with me, can’t you? I’ll make time to practice with you often. Horseback riding, monster hunting—you can do all of it with me.”
“I need to do things when I want to do them! How is it freedom if I’m left waiting endlessly for a busy Crown Prince to find time to play with me?!”
Facing Tamia’s rebellion, Leon’s composure finally snapped.
“Have you no idea? Do you understand what freedom the past Crown Princesses have enjoyed?!”
“…Um?”
“The late Empress Camilla, two reigns ago, was famous for sneaking out every night during her time as Crown Princess to empty beer crates at taverns—all under the guise of personally inspecting the Empire’s security!”
At his outburst, Tamia stopped her sobbing and listened, entranced.
“That’s not all. The late Empress Isabella selected whichever jewels she desired from the Imperial Treasury each morning and wore them—and never looked at the same piece twice. And the late Empress Emily? Every tea party, she’d drag her husband along and make him serve as a cake stand for three whole hours while he was buried in state affairs!”
“Is that actually true…?”
[Y-Your Highness! Is it really wise to say such things in front of all these people?]
“If you become Crown Princess, you’ll be able to use me the same way. Beyond that, there are 28,375 other benefits waiting for you. And yet you refuse the position? Why?”
“Wait, I was just trying to win the prize money—how did this turn into all this…?”
Tamia’s voice trembled. She felt as though she might be swept away entirely by the hurricane force of Leon’s presence.
[B-both of you, please calm… wait a moment! Just the prize money? Did you just say you were only after the prize money?]
The host, wedged between the two of them and visibly flustered, suddenly raised his voice in accusation.
[Surely you two didn’t… fake a marriage just for the prize money?!]
“Well, if they were actually married, there’s no way she wouldn’t know her husband’s status.”
“That means the two of them conspired to commit fraud?”
As whispers rippled through the audience, Leon snapped alert. A scandal was about to break—that the Crown Prince of the Empire had orchestrated an elaborate fake marriage con.
“No, no, that’s a misunderstanding!”
Leon panicked and glanced quickly at Tamia, whose tears had stopped abruptly.
Fortunately, Tamia had her lips firmly sealed. She hadn’t yet decided whether to forfeit the prize money or accept becoming Crown Princess.
[Then what was all that talk about prize money?!]
The host pressed relentlessly.
‘I have to spin this carefully—convince everyone this marriage is legitimate, not some scheme.’
A perfectly sound and logical judgment.
But there was one thing Leon had overlooked.
If Tamia hadn’t captured his heart in the first place, he would have ignored the condemnation of the Empire’s people a hundred times over.

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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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