“I can’t believe our wedding day is finally here.”
The man sitting across from me spoke in a slightly nervous voice.
Sunlight streamed through the window, illuminating his face.
Bright blond hair, rare golden eyes, fair and flawless skin, and long, slender fingers.
There was also something melancholic about him, as if a shadow lingered over his expression.
He was so incredibly handsome that anyone passing by would have to stop and stare at least once.
Kai.
My fiancé, a poor man who was being hunted by debt collectors.
In other words, what people would call a man who had absolutely nothing.
But at the same time, he was a man determined enough to propose to someone like me, who was once known as the Ghost of the Battlefield.
I looked at his hand as he fiddled with his teacup.
Unlike mine, which had long calluses running across the palm, his hand was so smooth that it looked as though he had never held a sword in his life.
“Don’t worry.”
I spoke in a low voice to reassure him.
Then I slightly opened my coat to show him what I had hidden inside.
There was a thick leather pouch tucked away.
“Everything is ready.”
Kai’s eyes widened.
“What… is that?”
“The victory rewards and retirement funds I’ve saved throughout my years on the battlefield.”
Kai asked, and I answered.
“Kai, I don’t know how much debt you’re in, but this should be enough to shut your creditors up.”
I continued casually, as though it were nothing.
“And if they dare show up at the wedding and cause trouble, don’t worry. I’ll deal with them using something other than money. You know how good I am with a sword.”
At my words, Kai stared at me blankly before smiling with a strange expression.
It was a smile that seemed to mix gratitude, guilt, and some kind of joy I couldn’t quite understand.
“Regina, you’re such a, really dependable person. And… you’ve been so good to me.”
“Of course. We’re about to become husband and wife.”
“……”
He hesitated for a moment before looking straight at me with a serious expression.
“But Regina, there’s something I want to tell you before we go to the wedding venue.”
He spoke as though he were giving me one final warning.
“What is it?”
“If you marry me, there will be more troublesome things than you might expect.”
His voice grew quieter.
“You might have to work late every night without getting any rest. You might not even have weekends off.”
At his words, I nodded to myself.
‘Of course. He’ll have to take on any job he can find to pay off all that debt. Poor man.’
But I was someone who had once marched for three days and three nights on the battlefield without sleeping.
The hardships of hard labor didn’t scare me.
“That’s fine. I can help with the work. I’m confident in my stamina, so don’t worry.”
Kai fell silent for a moment at my answer before carefully speaking again.
“And people will start looking at you differently, too.”
“Looking at me differently?”
“Yes. Some people might envy you, Regina, while many others will gossip about you behind your back.”
Kai’s tone was serious.
“Your life will be exhausting and restrictive. Are you still okay with that?”
His adorable concern made me chuckle.
As the daughter of a prestigious northern family, I was marrying a low-ranking noble buried in debt, and not just any noble, but a second son. He was worried about all the ridicule that would come our way.
“Kai.”
“Yes?”
“I’ve spent my entire life on the battlefield. Compared to the looks of disgust and fear people gave me when I returned covered in blood, the gossip of high society is nothing more than child’s play.”
I stood up and walked toward him.
Then I held out my hand to Kai.
“Don’t worry about what other people say. I’ll protect what’s mine.”
Kai looked down at my hand for a moment before taking it with a deep sigh.
“Phew… All right. If you’re really that determined. But I did warn you.”
“You won’t hear me complain later.”
At my words, he gave me a faint smile and stood up.
“Then let’s hurry. We don’t have much time.”
Our wedding was held in an old, crumbling chapel on the outskirts of the city.
There were no guests.
We deliberately kept the ceremony secret and didn’t even invite anyone from my family.
My father and older brother had cried out, ‘How can we possibly miss Regina’s wedding?!’ but there was no helping it if we wanted to protect Kai.
The only people in the chapel were an elderly caretaker who served as our witness and an officiating priest who could barely hear.
“Please hurry.”
Kai urged him on.
He kept glancing nervously toward the chapel doors.
Watching his anxious profile, I clicked my tongue inwardly.
‘Just how cruel must those debt collectors be for him to be this nervous, even on his wedding day?’
I squeezed his hand tightly to reassure him.
Then I turned toward the priest and spoke as well.
“Father, let’s skip the long speeches and get straight to the point.”
“Pardon? Ah, yes… Then, let us proceed directly to the vows…”
The wedding proceeded so quickly that I almost wondered if this was really how a wedding was supposed to be.
Following the priest’s instructions, we looked into each other’s eyes and exchanged our vows.
We promised to stay together through poverty, sickness, and hardship, until death did us part.
“Then, in the name of the Divine Lord… I hereby declare you husband and wife…”
The priest had barely finished his declaration when—
BANG!
The massive wooden doors were ripped off their hinges with a deafening crash.
“Stop!”
“This cannot be! This marriage is invalid!”
A group of dark-clad men stormed through the chapel entrance, shouting that the wedding had to be annulled.
Through the dusty backlight, I could make out the silhouettes of men gasping for breath. There were dozens of them.
Kai muttered, “Already…” before hiding behind me.
I let out a sigh.
‘Just as I thought. They’ve caught wind of it.’
Attacking us the moment the wedding ended? They had absolutely no sense of decency.
I roughly tore off my veil and threw it onto the floor.
Then I grabbed the heavy brass candlestick resting on the altar with one hand.
“Please step aside, Father.”
I pushed the frightened priest behind me and stepped forward.
Whoosh—
The candlestick cut through the air with a threatening sound.
“Who are you people?”
At the sound of my low, chilling voice, the men who had been rushing toward us hesitated.
As the dust settled, their appearances became clear.
They were all elderly men dressed in silk robes and covered in medals, accompanied by knights wearing red uniforms.
‘Oh? Quite an organized group of loan sharks, aren’t they? Judging by their clothes, they’ve probably made quite a fortune from their moneylending business.’
I released my killing intent to intimidate them.
The air inside the chapel turned ice-cold.
“You seem to have come here to collect my husband’s debts, but you’ve picked the wrong time.”
I pointed the end of my candlestick at them and spoke coldly.
“Our marriage vows have already been exchanged. He’s mine now. If you need money, I’ll pay you. So get out of my wedding venue right now.”
A terrifying silence fell over the chapel.
The elderly men who had been directly exposed to the killing intent of a battlefield veteran turned deathly pale.
“M-Money…?”
The white-haired old gentleman standing at the front trembled as he spoke.
“That’s right. I’ll pay you the principal plus interest, so take it and leave.”
“W-What are you talking about?! Money?!”
The old gentleman struck his chest in frustration before turning toward Kai, who was hiding behind me, and crying out.
“Your Majesty! How could you hold your wedding in such a shabby place without the nobles’ permission?!”
“This marriage is invalid under imperial law! You must return to the palace at once!”
……Your Majesty? Imperial law?
I tightened my grip on the candlestick.
‘Your Majesty’? Was that some kind of code word used by debt collectors?
Or had Kai been pretending to be a fake emperor because of his debts?
Just then, Kai slowly stepped out from behind me.
“My lords. You’re late.”
He looked down at the kneeling elderly men with an incredibly shameless yet elegant expression, completely different from the innocent face he had always shown me.
His voice carried a chilling air of authority.
“The marriage declaration was just completed. We’ve already sworn our vows before the Divine Lord, so it’s too late to take them back, imperial law or not.”
“Y-Your Majesty…!”
The old men wept bitterly as they pounded the floor.
I stood there dumbfounded, still holding the candlestick, and looked up at the man beside me.
My pale-faced, poorly dressed, pitiful unemployed husband, who was supposedly being chased by debt collectors, was actually…
While I was still trying to make sense of the sudden situation, Kai smiled gently and carefully lowered the candlestick from my hand.
“I’m sorry for surprising you, Regina. My creditors are rather high-ranking people.”
“Your Majesty means…”
“That’s right. They’re calling me that.”
“So Kai is… His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor?”
“That’s right. Oh, but you don’t have to bow to me. We’re married, after all.”
Kai helped me back to my feet as I instinctively started to kneel.
I stared at him blankly before finally managing to speak again.
“You said your family had a lot of debt…”
“We issued quite a lot of government bonds after the last war ended.”
“You said your family was insignificant…”
“Compared to the favor bestowed upon my family by the great Divine Lord, it is indeed nothing special.”
“You said you had an older brother… But the throne passes to the eldest son…”
“I did. But he’s dead now.”
Somehow, Kai’s cold smile sent a chill down my spine. I couldn’t bring myself to question him any further, so I fell silent.
“I told you everything truthfully, Regina.”
Kai brought my hand to his lips and kissed it with great affection and courtesy.
“So, you’ll stay with me, just as we promised, won’t you? As my wife?”
He gazed at me with sparkling eyes, like an innocent little cat, and said those words.
……Can I file a lawsuit to have this fraudulent marriage annulled?
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