MC isn't totally unsure of himself here. He knows what she means to the whole community and if he's seen attaching to her it's not that he'd drag her reputation down, the town would hammer in the nail that sticks out and he'd be identified as an issue.
At this point we don't know the full scope of the conflict in Waldecia but from the way their emperor treats the common folk it would seem that the upper class literally carpet nuked the world by their callousness and since Class A had a plan to fall back on they were fine with it. 8600 people...
The submersible exploding due to negligence and taking down some rich folk was as noncredible as it gets, yet again we prove that fact is stranger than fiction.