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.I get that making a game is hard, it takes time, and for every path presented extra work has to be done. That said, if you are going to present such polar opposite choices you are going to get blowback if you don't at least try for some sort of middle path. The choice at the end of the game so far is ridiculous, it's all or nothing. And what's worse, it doesn't fit the character building of Atlas so far. There should have been at least one other option on top of "Lie and tell Lucius" or "Support Ley". At minimum the one other choice should have been "Pull rank and tell Lucius without Lying". Even better, another middle ground choice to say something like "Do what you want, I won't stop you, but I won't help.". She's asking him to risk destroying millennia of work, life, and family because she's "nice".
Edit: Having read more of the replies in this thread I feel like I should point out that in my playthrough I'm supporting Ley. I happen to agree with her personally that what basically amounts to genocide with a few exceptions isn't the best course. My problem is that the choices presented at the end are limited and don't match up with Atlas and his character building.
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.