Scholar Tames Immortals

The border is in crisis, and the princess of the Golden Empire holds a martial contest to choose a husband who can do something about it. The winner is Sullivan, a scholar from a poor family who looks too slight to hold a sword, and the court puts him down as a man who got lucky. He entered for reasons of his own. His family was brought down years ago and the case around it was closed, and he has spent the time since at the top of a school of swordsmanship he mentions to nobody. Envoys from another state arrive at the palace and the factions inside it begin moving against each other. Sullivan stays close to the princess and works his way back into the old case while he does it. They fight side by side often enough that something grows between them, and his real name and standing come out in the middle of it. He is caught between her and what he came to the capital to finish.