@sunsetchaos he has better odds agaisnt greed coz:
- she was already engaged and for nobles trying to break engagements is a total fuckfest (like all the rumors that started about her when she did absolutely nothing wrong)
- maybe he tought that she was in love with the prince and decided to keep his feeling to himself in order to let her be happy
- now if the prince did love her and he went and confess and they get together, the prince could have a jealosly attack and throw him in jail or take away her rank, properties and everything that her family has
- even if the prince didn't get between them her family would fall to ruin with all the shitstorm the whole cancelling of the engagement thing
- now in the best case scenario her family would not support them coz even if hes the head of the court magicians he's still a conmoner and they would lose the connection to the palace, and the sister couldn't even try to get with the prince coz the royal family would never accept a replacement after the engagement was broken
- the last option is just to ask her to elope with him, but since she was doing the whole engagement thing for her family this probably wouldnt work
But now that they all think she's dead, she's actually free of all that, so now it's actually a good time for his confession, its easier to fight a dragon than face the political fuckfest that is high society