Chapter 06

Tamia and Leon’s eyes met in midair.

[Our handsome husband has been wearing that black hood ever since earlier. Why don’t you take off your hood first!]

“Take it off! Take it off!”

The louder the audience’s cheers became, the more rigid Leon’s expression grew.

If word got out that an Imperial Prince had entered into a fake marriage just to win the prize money, then next month’s front-page headline in Blah Blah would be all about Leon.

“Imperial Finances in Crisis? Second Imperial Prince Leon Enters Fake Marriage to Win Prize Money!”

…Just imagining it was horrifying.

Tamia was struggling just as much.

‘Aaaah! A whole year of married life?! Then Father is obviously going to find out and scold me terribly for getting married without his permission!’

But the prize money was far too large for her to simply give up first place.

As Tamia’s pupils frantically shifted back and forth between money and freedom, something happened.

“Kyahahahaha!”

A kangaroo-shaped monster that had been secretly hiding behind the podium flew toward Leon’s back like a cannonball.

Before Leon could dodge, the monster’s forepaw accurately hooked onto his hood like a fisherman catching a fish.

Whoosh!

The hood was ripped off before he could do anything, revealing his brilliant golden hair.

“……!”

“What, what is that?! Where were you hiding?!”

Startled, Tamia immediately rushed over and slammed the monster into the ground.

The monster disappeared into smoke without even having a chance to scream.

—Boom!

“Whew, everyone! You were surprised, weren’t you? Sorry about that. I thought I’d already taken care of all of them.”

Tamia dusted off her clothes and gestured apologetically toward the audience.

But something about their reaction seemed strange.

“……”

“……”

“What? Why isn’t anyone saying anything?”

Even the host stood frozen with his mouth hanging open.

“Hey, everyone? Did you all get hit by some kind of paralysis spell? What’s wrong with you?”

Tamia approached the host and lightly slapped his face.

Smack, smack.

Only then did the host finally regain his senses and stammer out,

[Th-The Second Imperial Prince?! Y-Your Highness, wh-why, why are you here?!]

“Huh? Your Highness?”

The only person who hadn’t yet understood the situation, Tamia looked back and forth between Leon and the host with a bewildered expression.

“Where’s the Imperial Prince here?”

[W-What do you mean? He’s standing right there! Your husband!!]

“That brilliant golden hair, those vivid red eyes, that incredible swordsmanship…”

“There’s no doubt about it! It’s His Highness Leon, the Second Imperial Prince!”

The audience finally began to stir.

“W-What, what, what did you say?”

Only then did Tamia finally understand what was happening.

Come to think of it, she vaguely remembered her mother telling her that golden hair and red eyes were symbols of the Imperial Family.

She also belatedly remembered her father telling her that the commander of the Griffin Corps was the Second Imperial Prince of the Empire.

She had thought it was completely useless information for her life, so she had erased it from her brain entirely…

“You tricked me! You never told me you were an Imperial Prince!!”

Tamia’s eyes widened as she charged straight toward Leon and began pounding her fists against his chest.

“Urgh! Wait, hold on! I wasn’t deliberately trying to deceive you…”

Leon hurriedly tried to grab her arms, but he couldn’t overcome Tamia’s monstrous strength.

“How could you trick me into marrying you? You should have told me you were an Imperial Prince from the very beginning!”

Every time she struck him, the impact was strong enough to make him feel as though his ribs might crack.

Leon hurriedly retreated while desperately trying to defend himself.

“No, it’s not like I deliberately hid it…”

Honestly, he felt unfairly accused.

He had never hidden the golden hair that was a symbol of the Imperial Family from Tamia, nor had he deliberately concealed the name written on the marriage registration form.

Dozens of Griffin Corps knights had repeatedly shouted “Your Highness” at the top of their lungs, and Tamia had simply filtered all of that out herself.

And now this was somehow his fault?

“Argh! What am I supposed to do?! You tricked innocent little me into becoming an Imperial Princess! Me, an Imperial Princess! I absolutely hate it!”

Tamia stopped punching Leon and began pulling at her own hair instead.

As he watched Tamia react with such vehement disgust, Leon felt strangely offended.

“…Is it really something to hate that much?”

“Of course! Becoming an Imperial Princess means I’d have to move into the Imperial Palace and live there! That place where I’d have to wear long, cumbersome dresses every day and spend my life attending boring parties? It’s practically a prison!”

Tamia continued screaming before suddenly stopping.

“…Give me some.”

“What?”

“Give me some salt.”

[Salt?]

“That thing is definitely a monster disguised as an Imperial Prince. We need to drive it out by throwing a ton of salt at it! There’s no way my husband could be an Imperial Prince. Get out of my husband’s body right now!!”

Conveniently, several beautifully packaged bags of pink salt had been placed on the podium as participation prizes for everyone.

Tamia swiftly grabbed one of the bags, scooped up a handful of salt, and flung it straight at Leon.

“Begone! Imperial Prince, begone!”

[P-Please calm down!]

The horrified host rushed forward and stopped Tamia.

Even if he was her husband, how could she behave like that toward His Highness the Imperial Prince?!

This time, Tamia threw the bag aside and began sobbing right there.

“Waaah… I have to practice swordsmanship regularly, ride horses across wide open plains, and occasionally go monster hunting so I can swing my sword to my heart’s content… If I become an Imperial Princess, I won’t be able to do any of that, right? Sniff.”

The audience began murmuring after witnessing Tamia’s intense reaction.

“Oh, dear… It seems His Highness had been hiding his identity from her all this time.”

“Well, if I found out my husband was an Imperial Prince, I might faint on the spot too.”

With public sympathy increasingly turning toward Tamia—

Leon was already as offended as he could possibly be.

Tamia was the first person he had ever met who openly and vehemently rejected the position of Imperial Princess.

“No, you can practice swordsmanship with me. I’ll make time for you occasionally. You can ride horses and hunt monsters with me, too.”

“Hic! I should be able to do those things whenever I want! What kind of freedom is it if I have to wait endlessly for a busy Imperial Prince to find time to play with me?!”

Tamia’s defiance finally snapped the last thread of Leon’s patience.

“Hah! Tamia! You clearly don’t understand anything! Do you know how much freedom the Imperial Princesses throughout history enjoyed?!”

“…Huh?”

“Empress Camilla, who was the Imperial Princess several generations ago, was famous for sneaking out every night and emptying entire crates of beer at taverns. She claimed she was personally checking on the Empire’s public safety!”

Tamia stopped sobbing and listened to him as though spellbound.

“Is that all? Empress Isabella chose whatever jewelry she wanted from the Imperial treasure vault every morning and wore it. Once she had worn a piece of jewelry, she never looked at it again! Empress Emily even forced her husband to come to every tea party and serve as a cake stand. She made an Imperial Prince who was busy with state affairs do that for three whole hours!”

“Was that really true…?”

[Y-Your Highness! Are you sure you should be telling stories like that? There are a lot of people here!]

“If you become an Imperial Princess, you can use me the same way. Besides, there are 28,375 other benefits prepared for you that you don’t even know about. And yet you’re refusing the position of Imperial Princess? Why?”

“I-I only wanted to win the prize money. How did things get this far…?”

Tamia’s voice trembled.

Just as she felt as though her soul was about to be blown away by Leon’s overwhelming presence, the host, who had been anxiously caught between the two of them, suddenly raised his voice.

[W-Wait! Both of you, please calm down… Huh? Hold on! The prize money? Did you just say you only wanted the prize money?]

The host suddenly raised a sharp suspicion.

[Don’t tell me… You two got married fraudulently just for the prize money?!]

“Well, if they were really married, she wouldn’t have failed to recognize her husband’s identity.”

“Then are you saying they deliberately committed fraud?”

As murmurs spread throughout the audience, Leon’s mind snapped fully awake.

If things continued like this, there was a real danger of a scandal breaking out over an Imperial Prince participating in a fake-marriage scheme.

“N-No, that’s a misunderstanding!”

Leon glanced at Tamia, who had abruptly stopped crying.

Fortunately, Tamia kept her mouth tightly shut.

Apparently, she still hadn’t decided whether to give up the prize money or become an Imperial Princess.

[Then what was that about the prize money?!]

The host was relentless.

First, I need to convince them that this marriage wasn’t a fraudulent scheme.

It was an entirely reasonable and logical conclusion.

However, there was one thing Leon had overlooked.

If Tamia hadn’t appealed to him in the first place, Leon would have ignored the criticism of the Empire’s people a hundred times over.

But that wasn’t the case anymore.