100% agree! I'm with you, I think the biggest issue for me is the explicit choice to lie. That doesn't fit with how Atlas has been characterized so far, at least as far as I can tell. He sneaky and clever, sure, but he's also loyal to those he trusts, that's the whole point of this issue. He's been honest and upfront almost to a fault with the girls so far, but now he's somehow unable to speak his mind? They can't physically stop him from telling Lucius, and maybe if he told them they could go together and try to find some sort of middle ground. If we're saying that them not telling Lucius makes the realm look weak, then him lying to the others makes him look weak as well.
Hell, even keeping the dichotomy of choices but having the "tell Lucius" option be overt rather than deceptive would have sat a little better, but really it could have easily had three options by going "tell Lucius", "lie and tell Lucius", or "don't tell Lucius". Then two of them are on roughly the same path and don't require much change in renders, etc. but would just change some conversations/variables when the girls find out. Could even give players who pick the lie option a second chance to decide later, to choose not to tell Lucius when given the chance and thus retroactively make his statement truthful, though given the quick turnaround that wouldn't mean much.
Still a great story, but it will be interesting to see how the next few chapters build/react to this.
