I think this further supports my theory that the kingdom (edit: I meant the place Lutz is currently which is called The Empire, great name) is a meritocracy solely because it's cupboards are totally barren. They cannot afford to not promote anyone with any level of talent as fast as possible because they just don't have any. It seems totally obvious to me that if a whole lake turns into poison that it was done by a monster. They are the only thing shown to so radically change their environment. Dorothea is even stating outright that the monster must have come from the kingdom but were not noticed by the empire. The empire seemingly has nearly no knowledge about the monsters/pests in the kingdom which is crazy when you're ramping up trade with another nation.