@WhimsiCat
"Why am I reminded of the 'nobody literally had a gun pointed at their head' defense?"
Nobody pointed a gun at her head, even if you want to say it figuratively. It was established in this story itself that the acolyte alone has the right to make decision. Being pressured in public is not grounds to call it 'being forced'. I was pressured into being my classmate's gopher in high school, I kneed her in the guts in exchange. From the start, she alone has that the power to make the decision, and I wager if she refused, the temple would've honoured her wishes. She made the choice.
"Heck did it not occur to you that if the money is hers, where was she keeping it? The MC saw her skills and clearly she did not have any kind of dimensional storage type skill."
I did wonder if she was carrying it along, but the carriage was too small to be carrying even one of those chests. As for it not being hers, have you wondered that maybe it functioned the same way as a dowry? In that the money is given at the time of the agreement (proposal) and is for the receiver's sole use at their discretion after the wedding? I know it's no longer done in Japan, but in many Asian cultures, it's an essential part of marriage. If this is the case, she'd have kept the money in the temple, so that they can reinvest the money or in a financial institution elsewhere.
Of course, I accept that I could be wrong. We do not know anything about the money or how this temple operates, except for the occasional reference about how the parents gave their whole fortunes to get her. So everything we say can only be speculation.
But one thing that I will assert is that she should give the boy back all the money if she's a decent person. She broke the sale-purchase agreement first.