Since some of her statements change significantly chapter to chapter, i wouldnt be surprised if some more fun lying and deception will be revealed in later chapters.
MC's spinelesness when being directly lied to and not questioning obvious stuff is just hitting towards Ceolags writing ability.
Looking back on it the last hard hitting dialogue was 2 years ago with the Ch.3 release. And that is a shame.
It feels to me that kaijas walkback on her words on being in "love" with MC are some kind of "last minute" changes that might be a try to make her more likeable than originally envisioned.
Personally I think the shifting explanation of Kaija's feelings for the MC makes at least some sense. It's annoying (particularly after the game bent over backwards trying to retroactively align her motivations to our treatment of her), but I can believe a young woman might struggle to recognize and and articulate consistently her feelings for a friend with whom she has a complicated relationship.
Unfortunately, it's that last bit that winds up torpedoing the character for me in Chapter 6. The reason Kaija had a complicated relationship with the MC - the reason I was willing to cut her so much slack despite lying to the MC - was because she was ostensibly trapped between two unwavering priorities with no way out. She couldn't reveal the truth to the MC without betraying her loyalty to the Templars, and she couldn't continue to follow Templar orders without abandoning the MC when he most needed help. Maybe the actions she took weren't the ones I would have in her place, but when every option open to her is bad I'm not going to quibble about exactly which one is least worst.
But then Chapter 6 comes along and it turns out this 'dilemma' should have been a slam dunk. Kaija doesn't care about the Templar ideals, never did. She doesn't even seem to know what the Templars actually do. Kaija will happily side with the MC against the Templars if he thinks they're in the wrong, even after he waltzed off to hobnob with their longtime enemy on the brink of a war. Kaija was evidently only in it for the perks, be they "brave warrior" street cred or free ski chalets.
And the MC doesn't bat an eyelash at this seeming about-face. He doesn't wonder why she was singing a different tune the last time they discussed it, nor wonder how much he can trust what she's told him given her apparently gullibility when it comes to Templar propaganda. He even dismisses the idea that she's still stonewalling him despite specifically noting it if she did exactly that; the audience is assured that it's so blatant it must have been unintentional.
The end result is that, at least to me, Kaija comes across as either an oblivious moron, a pathological liar, or a terribly written character. Regardless of which explanation you prefer, her value as a LI has been burned down to the waterline.
Maybe her path could be rebuilt, but at this point the narrative time and effort needed for yet another bite at the apple isn't worth it. The game has bigger fish it needs to fry and it needs to fry them yesterday.
