So personally i think it's much more nuanced than that.
Richard seems to consider most other to be less than human(meat), the exception being aura and *MAYBE* Alicia, from what i can tell this comes from him being smarter than most of his peers, and part of a family of wealthy elitists who don't consider killing others to be an issue(George's mother being a prime example). So to Richard, most "People" are just tools/cattle/meat, no complex thoughts, not worth his time or consideration, and he's bored of playing with meat, he desperately wants a challenge, something worthy of his time, then comes Aura who beats him intellectually, and therefore must be a human despite their completely incongruous beliefs. This makes Aura worth his interests as she is a human, but she has altruistic ideals, so who is right, Richards elitist hedonism, or Aura's altruism, Richard likely wants to test her and her ideals, because if she can best him in their match of wills, then he *MIGHT* be wrong, but Aura is a worthy rival, so he doesn't need to hold back, he's going to finally get to compete on a level playing field, and he fully expects Aura to throw his plans off balance, thats half the fun for him. But if she fails to beat Richard then she's just a disappointment, if she can't hold to her ideals and put up a fight then she'll just have to entertain him in some other way to make up for it.
Richard wants to compete with someone on his level, it's all just a game to him, he doesn't care about the world, thats just the backdrop to this game he's set up with the goddess to test Aura.
Alicia is much simpler in her desires, she wants to change Aura's mindset to hedonism so that they can be friends again. Aura was her only friend, her family basically abandoned her to work, and the rich kid got into bad habits and bad crowds, In comes Rose who's noble idealism appeals to Aura who's grown up on hero anime and has a massive narcissistic streak, who literally has so much belief in herself that she believes she "CANNOT" lose. Rose seems to just genuinely hate the attitude of the wealthy since she descends from wealth herself, and rebels against the expectations of her family. So Rose plays hero to prove she's better than the people around her, Aura plays hero because she's full of herself and being a champion of justice appeals to her lunatic fantasy of herself, and Alicia has naturally picked up elitism and hedonism to compensate for not having a family life, which puts her at odds with the only family she's ever had, and she's pissed that Aura chose her new friend over her.
Alicia will not give up on getting back together with Aura who in her mind just needs to open her eye's to what she should be doing since she believes Aura should be part of the upper crust with her, and thats the only way they can be friends again. So Alicia is changing Aura to be a version of Aura that could stand beside her willingly and happily, but she's still angry, both at Aura for abandoning her to chase some stupid hero dream, and Rose for stealing and "Corrupting" her closest friend. Alicia's alliance with Richard is tenuous at best, she's just not smart enough to keep up with him, and her ideals don't match his, Aura is her friend, but she needs to change to accept that, while Richard would throw the whole plan under the bus to have fun with his rival/new toy and while Alicia can accept most of his actions do to her strong belief in hierarchy, she can't accept him keeping her out of the loop and screwing up her plans, but she also knows she needs to play along to not draw Richards ire.
Aura is interesting because she's much more like Richard than she believes, she treats life like a game because she wants to be the "Hero", she's not helping people for their own good, at least not fully, she only helps people because doing so makes her fit a mold of an idea of a hero. She's acting, constantly pretending to be something she isn't because she enjoys emulating the fantasies she's obsessed with. Aura is just so full of herself that she honestly believes she will never fail, that there are not enough handicaps she could be given to lose, so she takes on every fight, since she's the perfect "Hero", she spends all her time either helping others, bettering herself so she can be perfect, or immersing herself in fantasy, nothing else matters to her. Her friends and relationships reflect this as well, most people, even the best people, will have friends of differing beliefs, not Aura, she excises anyone who doesn't fit her beliefs.
Aura is pathologically full of herself, only associates with strong willed individuals who match her beliefs, looks down on those who don't, and is extremely competitive, while also believing nobody can defeat her. She's basically good aligned Richard.
Anyway this is just my own perception of the characters, i could be waaaaay off, i'll probably change my perception as i have more dialogue and do more playthroughs for other endings
