
I cringed when I saw the unicorn
Of all creatures it's a unicorn
Also I stopped understanding the plot-

Ah so the person who was like “just give up, the beast has died” is against punishing the poachers. The beast people regard all animals with respect I believe and so they didn’t want the unicorn to die however it was on the verge of death, but the girl brought it back. The scene was most likely there for the citizens to witness the kindness of the girl and was placed there by the author. Honestly Im not sure how the unicorn got there or was injured since that part was confusing, but I think it’s also placed by the author to confirm the fact that there are mythical creatures within that world

the guy supporting poachers was high ranking nobility so he probably had some black market or shady connections to capture a young one who strayed slightly from the bunch. in many stories unicorns are also hunted for their horns so there are many possibilities but likely the child was captured in order to get the ML into trouble as unicorns are probably under even more protection (like her wolf)

In addition, it was also mentioned in the conversation between the corrupt duke and prince that if the unicorn died near the city other unicorns will think they killed it and would attack that city in hordes to take revenge for the killed unicorn. The duke said that prince will then have to kill them all (to protect the people even though the unicorns should also be protected). It was a trap for the prince to take responsibility for that tragedy so he would have probably lost his position. And as CoolBlue238 already said it was implied that the corrupt duke is pulling the strings with poaching so he probably wants to get ride of the prince who is against it
Anyone else saw the name and thought of ranboo from the dream smp