The rumors were all true though and it's not like anyone in that world knows that a different person commited the acts. From the count's perspective, he's both risking his family's status and livelihood, as well as giving his daughter to a man who's known far and wide as an incompetent scumbag. Who was he to confirm anything with? Iris had no opportunity to meet with him before this event and one would assume wouldn't dare speak out anyway, since she's deeply involved with the guy in question and probably watched all the time. The king's word would also be suspect, since he was the one to bring the MC there to begin with and obviously wants to set him up as a noble of his kingdom, admitting that he's trash would not get him any favours with the rest of his subjects. The Duke is even more invested in the prince, since he's supposed to be his son in law.to be fair, since the father has been working on one projects completion and is now working on its direct sequel, with the financial situation being poor as described, he might have been worked harshly enough and gave into rumours instead of confirming with those closely related. the fact his wife did not stop this madness immediately also makes me believe he had her consent in this regard.
it was still a pretty poor choice though.
There's so much wrong here that it's hard to decide where to start.The rumors were all true though and it's not like anyone in that world knows that a different person commited the acts. From the count's perspective, he's both risking his family's status and livelihood, as well as giving his daughter to a man who's known far and wide as an incompetent scumbag. Who was he to confirm anything with? Iris had no opportunity to meet with him before this event and one would assume wouldn't dare speak out anyway, since she's deeply involved with the guy in question and probably watched all the time. The king's word would also be suspect, since he was the one to bring the MC there to begin with and obviously wants to set him up as a noble of his kingdom, admitting that he's trash would not get him any favours with the rest of his subjects. The Duke is even more invested in the prince, since he's supposed to be his son in law.
The best thing he could probably do is stall for time and attempt to get to know him himself, as well as try to get an honest (by his reconing) anwser from Iris. That would probably backfire as well though, since the MC expects to be given the benefit of doubt, disregarding his horrible reputation... There's really no winning here. Not only that, for some reason Luke insists on hearing a sales pitch, as if he hadn't had enough of those in his previous life.
I specifically wrote "from the count's perspective", didn't I? We all know the reality of things, we know that the MC isn't holding Iris's chain and if she chose to, she could have gone and explained everything to her father before this event. She didn't. What is her dad to think, then?There's so much wrong here that it's hard to decide where to start.
First, Iris is the one that wanted to come with him. She was never forced to make that choice. She did her darnest to make it possible. She had all the freedom she needed to inform her father of the reality.
She also is the one that set this meeting up, so clearly she had contacted her father with a letter at least. Obviously she would also inform him of the matters.
He's also not being rumored to be incompetent at all. Quite the opposite. EVERYONE we met considered him competent (to a point)!!! Just a a pervy jackass that due to his jackassery makes some stupid mistakes now and then.
You're also missing quite a lot on the political side. Sure, the king wouldn't want to make it known that his daughter is engaged to an incompetent scumbag. BUT HE DIDN'T EVEN NEED TO APPROVE IT. Instead of allowing a scumbag to marry his daughter and then do his darnest to hide it, he just wouldn't permit that marriage in the first place! It was set up for the duke's daughter to marry him which would have already fulfilled the kings needs. It makes no sense for him to speak any better of Luke, when his goal was just blood ties between his kingdom and Luke's kingdom.
Also, there's a lot of difference between 'being cautious towards untrustworthy business party' and 'being an idiot towards untrustworthy business party'. Being cautious is fine. Ask for the plan, for any backups, for potential risks and what steps are taken to prevent them. All of this is perfectly normal in a business negotiation and would show you if the other party is not skilled enough in business. He didn't do ANYTHING of that. In fact, he didn't even DO ANY BUSINESS!!! He literally offended the prince time and again (that's punishable by death, by the way...) ON PERSONAL MATTERS.
You writing that changes absolutely nothing. He knows she wanted to go with the prince. They WERE in contact. He knows more than you claim he does.I specifically wrote "from the count's perspective", didn't I? We all know the reality of things, we know that the MC isn't holding Iris's chain and if she chose to, she could have gone and explained everything to her father before this event. She didn't. What is her dad to think, then?
His positive reputation has spanned a few weeks (months?) and has spread only among a few people, while the negative one has lasted for years and is known far and wide among at least two whole countries. Which would you be more likely familiar with? Also, the previous Luke was indeed known as an incompetent - worst student in his class and the only one stupid enough to kill his own dragon in a reckless stunt. As for being scumbag, that was what people said about him, especially the women he peeped at. It doesn't have to mean he was actually malicious, but it's what you get for constanly upsetting people and never cleaning up your act.
Again, my take is from the perspective of Iris's father. He isn't privy to all of the king's political manipulations or needs. He's a down on his luck noble, who's not part of the upper echelons, like the duke, so while it would be strange for the king to welcome an undesirable into his own family, there might be good reasons behind it, especially since the guy's a foreign royal. For example, the other kingdom might have been the one to force the issue and the king would probably prefer it over open conflict (given the attitude of Luke's father, it's not unreasonable to assume that he rules a vastly stronger nation).
Offending a royal is only punishable in that royal's own kingdom, Luke has currently no official standing among the aristocracy of his host country, he's not married yet. Even if he did, no one would sentence a noble to death for merely pissing him off, at worst he'd have to publicly apologize and bow his head. As for the count's tactics, yeah there were better ways to go about this. He could have nodded his head and went along with things on the surface, while gathering info on the side to decide if he could trust him. Still, Luke is a kid and rumored to be non too bright. He probably though he could be high handed and then just smooth things over if needed. I also think the "better" option I described had a good chance of backfiring - were the MC to discover that (and Navi would probably just tell him), he'd be offended at the deception. It's really lose-lose unless Luke himself acknowledges that people just can't be straight with him, until he demonstrates to them what kind of person he really is.
Offending a royal is only punishable in that royal's own kingdom
Go ahead and point to the chapter and page that states they were in contact. Are you just assuming they were, because Iris was excited to accept Luke's offer? Also, let's say theye were, for the argument's sake - it would have to be through letters or some other way of remote correspondence. You know that it's very hard to tell if the other person is being forthcoming with you and not under some external pressure in such a scenario, right? That's why people insist on talking in person, when such matters are concerned.You writing that changes absolutely nothing. He knows she wanted to go with the prince. They WERE in contact. He knows more than you claim he does.
Before finding fault with my attention span, try to learn to listen to something other the thoughts in your own head. I verly clearly said it was a matter of the general reputation he has among his people. The fact that he's loved by his family and close friends (like just about anyone, who hasn't grown up in a shitty environment, no matter how much of a failure they personally are) doesn't change that. Think for a moment: if it was all so trivial, then why did the king finally decide enough is enough and got rid of him, rather than just keep him out of the public's eye for a bit? Why did his fiancee's father annul the engagement? Why was said fiancee "labeled a disgrace" for her involvement with him? Does all that sound like something that would happen to a "pervy, overconfident" prince, who only had one serious black mark against him? Whatever his true character was, it's undeniable that he was a disaster to his father and other nobles, from an image standpoint.You also clearly don't bother paying attention when reading. His siblings love him and always had faith in him. His ex-fiance genuinely loved him. Even his dragon loved him from the beginning. We've NEVER been told anything other than him being overconfident, pervy and a troublemaker. Him being last in class in the MOST ELITE school in the kingdom is hardly a slight as well. But none of these really matter in business beyond just making one wary.
I'm sorry, how much education have you had when it comes to feudalism and monarchies of the past? You've implied there's something wrong with my knowledge, but this reasoning is borderline childlish. Have you no notion of what a political marriage really means? Have you any idea what kind of shenanigans the European dynasties got up to, when it comes to selecting candidates? It certainly didn't have anything to do with their personal merits, that I can promise you. Zeno could have any number of uses for him in mind. The most common move would be to have Luke or his children be claimants for the neighbouring kingdom's throne after the old king dies. Depending on the political situation there (i.e. if there's already discord and a dispute), they might have a shot and even if not, they remain means to sow discord there and useful bargaining chips. This was a common tactic in medieval Europe, but it's not the only one possible. Luke can be used to apply pressure to Volg in other ways. Setting him up for some spectacular failure and then demanding restitution from Volg's king is also a good way to influence foreign politics. It's not like Zeno needs to make him heir to his throne just because he married his daughter either. Plenty can be done.Also, it has literally zero sense to assume that the king would have some ulterior motive to cover for him in order to marry his daughter. As I said, HE LITERALLY DOESN'T NEED THEM TO MARRY. There is zero benefit for the princess to marry Luke UNLESS Luke is actually a valuable due to his skills. Everything else that would come from that marriage is already fulfilled by the dukes daughter marrying Luke, and as far as Iris's father was aware, that marriage was in no way endangered. If Luke's father wanted to use force to marry Luke off to a foreign nations princess, he would have already done that, instead of approving the marriage with the dukes daugther.
Oh, by all means, don't ignore it. Show me how wrong I am by pointing to some nice sources. You can do that, can't you? After all, you seem so confident here...Eh...What?! So that's the level of knowledge you have, huh...
Let's ignore this though. Let's assume that's true (hint, it's not). Iris's father is a noble from LUKE'S kingdom. Luke is HIS prince. Luke is of a higher standing than Iris's father. And again...this was shown in the story itself in these very chapters!!!