Sticking with the templars is a must, there isn't really any other choice at the moment. People are out to get him and they are the only defense that he has. About the mc, visual novels are all about self-insertion. While the protagonist should have a personality, the player should have choices. You say he is honest and loyal, something I agree with, but this is not a normal situation, his entire life has broken down. While he has been honest, loyal and good, the people he trusted the most have been the complete opposite towards him. How he reacts to such a big issue is the point of choices, it's what makes a novel not kinetic. If you want him to just try to ignore and escape them so he can settle down with another LI, that would be in character, if you choose that you want him to be vengeful and angry, that too would be in character for someone who has been so betrayed. You don't have agree with such a choice, but these types of choices are indeed what makes it a visual novel and not a kinetic. The big story choices should be up to the player, especially if it is about something the player personally got affected by, betrayal for instance. It always leaves a bad taste when the mc makes such an important choice himself, it ruins the immersion and self-insertion.
You know, I agree. Mostly.
Or I would, if this was CRPG made by huge team of developers. VNs developed for this site can only have so many routes. And that's not a complaint about dev (who has done amazing fucking job so far), just reality.
Would I love to have a game which asks for dozens of choices each chapter and leads to hundreds of different paths? Well duh.
My point is that from what is seen so far, and from how much freedom game allowed so far, it would be out of character for MC to go for revenge. Characters made by devs are made (at least how I see it) with some personality in mind. Sure, there is character development, changes in character over time due to events and so on, but ultimately one path makes more sense than others.
If you've played Witcher 3, think of it that way. It makes no sense for Geralt to kill innocents, forest creatures that talk to him and such. In some cases you can do it, sure, but overall it's out of character since it's pre-developed character, we're navigating it to end of his story.
That's how I view most VNs, we navigate pre-made character through his/her story, making some decisions in their life.
CRPGs are probably only genre where I expect absolute and full freedom of choice. Those are "make your own character in the world created by devs".
So just to stay on-topic, I stand behind my opinion MC (currently) should not be turned into revenge driven character. That might change with future chapters, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.
EDIT: And at the risk of sounding like brown-nosing , I want to see a story dev wants to make. So far the story, available choices and development have been nothing short of brilliant, and I believe it will continue that way. I'm happy following that story and navigating MC where options are given. Fanbase tossing ideas that devs sometimes incorporate into game usually ends up a complete mess. Would hate to see that happen here.