It might not be an actual Intel Network but his followers telling him stuff and him jumping to conclusions ... as you said the guy is not exactly the brightest bulb in the room by far.
Yep, especially as HE is the "revenge Patricia foreshadowed to Ragna about last chapter!" Specifically she suggested to the idiot to go to his territory "in secret" and the fool did so without too much thought! Once again he never fully thinks out his action and it's clear to Ragna that Patricia is DONE with the Prince, as in she got what she want. His death will actually fuck Ragna over if it happens because the fool IGNORED Procedure, which was to send an early message ahead of time to be visiting his territory! The Novel went into great detail how the "Hidden Royal Trope" where the Royal hides himself so he can TRULY see the location he's going into via a commoner viewpoint falls apart because their essentially a "Bomb waiting to happen" if something were to happen to them! Usually those who do the trope are alot more careful/smarter. But the Prince is the opposite and is an idiot (bringing only ONE guard)
Also "Guess who's the Nuisance for THIS arc!" Cause SPOILERSNOTREALLY It's him! Basically he sticks to the Trio like a fucking bad habit and it becomes abit disruptive to their training they had planned because they have to keep an eye on him. All while he thought he was KEEPING AN EYE ON THEM! He's very annoying in that for one, he treats the girls like their helpless, annoying Ragna when he leaves them to their training when he's in White Knight mode which is disruptive to them, especially since he's trying to "protect them from threats they themselves easily handle and he really stood little chance against" (Imagine a Level 20 protecting two Level 60's from a Level 50 threat! LOL) I'm curious how that portion of the Novel will be made in Manga form (since I don't remember the Prince being this level of Black & White Antagonistic towards Alicia) But suffice to say, I do believe he gets humbled at the end of the arc (not that the Trio's opinion of him is high! LOL)
I think Patricia was aware of said network, hence she made certain to deal with it where she had control that even HAD the fool listened to them anyway and they had anything worth while. Reminder that she doesn't love him or ANY of the "Fishes" and just wanted to ruin the kingdom for what it did to the Saintess. Ragna's in direct opposition because he and his people along with the girls will be collateral (and already almost WERE with the fact he was able to avoid Alicia's original bad end)