Listening to Raymond's words, Alfred froze for a moment, then furrowed his brows tightly and began to ponder.
But forgive him—among the nobility, he could already be considered someone with very broad horizons, and within that group he was also one of the more enlightened ones.
Yet even so, even at this very moment, he still didn't have that sudden flash of insight that would let him swiftly grasp where the problem lay.
If you gave him some time, let him spend a whole night thinking carefully, he might be able to sharply pick out the clues in all this—but right here and now, with his mind still somewhat muddled by the newly received information, he simply couldn't quickly reason it through.
All that could be said was that under Raymond's patient, step-by-step guidance, he'd vaguely started to grope toward something, but had yet to precisely seize that sliver of inspiration and string the issue together in a clear line.
