Harold's dilemma actually is quite interesting. Since he absolutely must maintain the arrogant, cruel image in the eyes of his parents, that's also going to be his public image. Yet behind the scenes, he's a good guy helping the common people. So, who exactly is he going to rely on as his assistants? They need to be at least decently good people morally, otherwise they wouldn't cooperate with him to save commoners, in fact they would betray him for their own benefit. However, since they need to be good people, it's difficult for them to play along with Harold's infamous public image, just like how it happened with Zen here.
He's pretty lucky he did find a few people he could trust. Maybe it was made easier by his parents being so extra unreasonable.