hii, thank you so much for this warning! This was such a disappointment since the worldbuilding was so good and the characters were so well-written.
If the author wanted to explore such a dynamic, I wish they had given more of a warning rather than blindsiding the players with it because I'm currently at chapter 4 for both routes and it feels like you're genuinely creating a connection w both of them ://. Or better yet if they have the resources, create two variations of the routes where one is where you're just an extra while the other is the more fulfilling routes because the former is certainly unique and worth exploring if you know what you're getting into, just not what some players are looking for.