not a bug, you send him once to the valley, you get in the ruthless route. i presume luke and kota are talking about something that happens in between scenes that we don't actually see. imagine there was a week or two time jump when the ruthless chapter 1 kicks in, by then the mc has gone nuts and i don't believe he can be read as a self insert for the player anymore. argos is the new mc for that route.
there is no neutral route currently. i think it's still planned so that you will be able to play the story without having to date asterion, but that concept was dropped for now.