WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Genius Prince’s Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt Episode 12, "A Really Motivated Seller," now streaming on Funimation.
The Genius Prince’s Guide has long established that Prince Wein Salema Arbalest is no angel. With his first war alone, Wein demonstrated a lack of empathy for his own army when offering them empty words of encouragement, expecting them to lose the battle with Marden. When they actually won the war -- not once, but twice -- he was genuinely stunned. In addition to having accidentally helped dismantle an entire kingdom, Wein was noticed by other neighboring kingdoms, including the Earthworld Empire. He even received a marriage proposal from Princess Lowellmina of Earthworld, who turned out to be his childhood friend "Lowa."
In worse news for Wein, his defeat of Marden got him noticed by the more bigoted western kingdoms of Cavarin, Soljest and Delunio -- all of which subscribe to the Levetian religion with their monarchs being members of the Holy Elite. Delunio in particular owned land in Marden, putting Wein in an even bigger political bind. This caused the western kingdoms to conspire against him, looking to control or even murder him. They were caught off guard, however, by Wein's impulsive murder of King Ordalasse of Cavarin. Now in Episode 12, the protagonist reveals an even more monstrous side in dealing with his biggest foes.
Wein had been caught fraudulently exporting Earthworld goods as Natran products to the western kingdoms to subvert their refusal to trade with the empire. This action gets Princess Zenovia -- Marden's sole surviving monarch -- in trouble with the western kingdoms, which results in a threat from Delunio's prime minister, Sirgis. Wein takes responsibility for the exports and visits the kingdom of Soljest in order to form an alliance with King Gruyere. To Wein's surprise, he actually agrees to an alliance and shares his more liberal political views, which earns his trust.
Unbeknown to Wein, however, King Gruyere's plan was all a ruse to get him out of the way while he conspired with Prime Minister Sirgis behind the scenes to take back Marden's land, which led to Soljest invading Natra. After being played for a fool by Gruyere, Wein realized he had to act quickly to dissolve the alliance between Soljest and Delunio -- easier said than done. Careful planning of that dissolution would’ve gone a lot smoother had Wein gone to Princess Lowa to work out the details, but he didn't want to be indebted to the equally diabolical Lowa. Instead, he cooks up an even worse plan: to threaten genocide.
Episode 12 of The Genius Prince's Guide sees Wein and Zenovia pay a visit to Prime Minister Sirgis to try and work out a peaceful reconciliation. Zenovia attempts to appease Sirgis by offering double the land that is owed to Delunio in exchange for getting the Soljest army to stop their invasion of Natra. Sirgis, however, sees through the proposal and doesn't accept her offer. With Zenovia’s plan failing, Wein decides to take matters into his own hands by proposing that Sirgis murder King Gruyere before his kingdom grows to the point of deciding to invade Delunio. Sirgis once again isn't moved -- so Wein goes with Plan B.
Knowing that Soljest is too powerful for Natra's army to beat, Wein acknowledges Gruyere will succeed in seizing Natra, which will displace all of its citizens. He also acknowledges his people will seek refuge in other kingdoms, including Delunio, which Sirgis accepts. After getting his "approval," Wein gleefully tells Sirgis he will send all of his people as refugees to Delunio, which catches the prime minister off guard. Sirgis protests by saying his nation can only accept a few hundred refugees, but any more would exhaust Delunio's resources. Wein, however, has a solution to that too.
To resolve the problem of overpopulation, Wein tricks Sirgis into thinking he’s been secretly exporting a deadly poison to Delunio's citizens through their clothing. Over time, wearing these poisonous clothes will kill all of Delunio’s citizens and the kingdom would be ripe for the picking for Natra’s refugees. This plan proves too monstrous for Zenovia who is immediately horrified by Wein's logic, even if he's suggesting genocide in jest. Sirgis, though, is in a worse position.
While Sirgis does contemplate the possibility Wein is bluffing, at the same time he decides not to stake his political career by risking his own people's lives -- but then cracks under pressure and agrees to ally with Wein to stop Soljest's invasion of Natra. By acquiring Delunio's army, Natra's own now has the support it needs to defeat Soljest and capture King Gruyere. This manages to impress Gruyere, who then awaits his own execution. Wein, however, offers him an alliance with Natra in exchange for learning the secret to Wein's genius. The prince's intelligence shines through once again, but in so doing has revealed an even darker side to his character.
