User blog comment:FairyRaven/Fairy Tail Chapter 453: A Father's Job, Review and Commentary/@comment-49.148.179.76-20150920123126/@comment-7418318-20150924203656

To be fair he went there on a diplomatic mission, not to spy.

Snooping around carries the risk of being caught. And that might well have provoked an earlier attack, which would be quite the massive backfiring considering he went there to delay the inevitable invasion.