‘She must think I’m going to talk about it.’

But Odette had no intention of revealing it.

“……So, I was thinking of discussing the compensation with Duke Ertman. That’s all. So please don’t push Miss Elodie too hard.”

“……!”

Color finally returned to Elodie’s face.

With a bit of confusion.

She found it strange that Odette had covered for her.

Of course, Odette’s choice to cover for Elodie wasn’t for Elodie’s sake.

‘If I tell Elodie’s story here, it will become a big deal.’

Then surely the maids who brought the dress will suffer.

Even if among them, someone had maliciously switched Elodie’s dress, what sin did the other innocent people have?

Odette didn’t want to make things difficult for the other maids who had done their best for her.

“As for the dress, it’s my mistake, so I’d like to resolve the matter by making appropriate compensation.”

“……That was the situation. I understand.”

Whether Russell had caught onto the situation, he nodded with a strange expression.

And then he made a humming sound before saying,

“But what about this?”

“……?”

“The dress Your Highness is wearing, it’s not Miss Elodie’s dress, is it?”

That was a bombshell.

(This is a time separator.)

The dress was indeed the one Elodie had bought.

But the problem was that the signature on the receipt for the dress Elodie had decided to buy was Duke Ertman’s butler.

Naturally, Elodie protested this conclusion.

“I can’t accept it! The Duke clearly said I could buy a dress!”

“Yes, it is true that His Grace had agreed to support Miss Elodie’s debutante. And he set the amount at 200,000 dert.”

“……200,000 dert? I never heard that…….”

“It was delivered in writing, and you signed on it. Don’t you remember?”

“……!”

Elodie then recalled the bundle of documents she had signed without reading properly in her excitement.

It was an agreement that supported Elodie with Duke Ertman’s finance.

She had glanced at it briefly and signed, at the mention that it was being drafted to prevent any issues later on.

And of course, she did not check the amount written there…
It seems that the passage has been duplicated in your prompt. I’ll translate the text provided once, keeping the characters’ names and genders consistent, and maintaining the exact line number of the original text:

“The dresses Miss Elodie bought nearly amounted to 1.8 million dert. Since it couldn’t be undone once bought, the dresses were to be kept at Duke Ertman’s side, and arrangements were to be made to choose a few within a fixed amount…”

The problematic dress of Odette was a whopping 500,000 dert for a single piece.

Considering that 200,000 dert could equip about three simple evening dresses, the price was truly astronomical.

So to summarize.

“This dress could never have been Miss Elodie’s in the first place.”

With those words, Elodie finally blushed crimson and ran away.

And Odette…

“This, this dress is 500,000 dert…?”

…She was taken aback by the unexpected price of the dress.

(This is a time separator.)

Thus, at present.

“You don’t have to worry about the dress. I intended to give them all to you anyway.”

“What on earth do you want from me?”

Odette was sitting face to face with Walter, in the tensest state of her life.

It was somewhat fortunate that she could maintain a calm face even in a tense state thanks to the education she received as royalty.

Odette thought she might include this sentence if she ever wrote her memoirs.

‘I can’t believe he’s thinking of handing all the dresses over to me…!’

Odette still didn’t know that the dress she was wearing was the most expensive of the lot.

So in her mind, the prices of the other dresses were already in four digits.

Of course, she could just refuse the dresses, but the intention was what mattered.

‘I should have doubted, not admired, Duke Ertman’s excessive treatment.’

This might not be a petty trick to fatten her up to eat her!

‘I knew well that there’s no such thing as a free lunch…!’

Letting her guard down too much because of the help she got from Walter was a mistake.

The result was a debt of 500,000 dert…

Odette swallowed dryly and opened her mouth.

“It goes without saying, but I don’t need the other dresses. And… I will pay back this dress’s price as soon as possible.”

“I think I just told you not to worry. Did I speak too difficultly?”

Whether he was really perplexed, Walter slightly raised one eyebrow.

“You don’t have to pay anything back. It’s all yours.”

“There’s no such thing as a gift without a price. You must want something.”

“Of course I do.”

As expected. Now he’s revealing his true intentions.

Odette lowered her eyelids.

She was confident that she wouldn’t be surprised at whatever came out.

‘What on earth will it be?’

As long as he doesn’t discover my secret…

“Marry me, Princess.”