@totmes He's claiming all of this is a book he read.  It's weird for it to cause this much existential angst in a teenager though.

@totmes It's nice that in this chapter, he at least considered another path.  Would be a pleasant surprise if his approach goes more consistently measured.

@Trevor Wellington To a degree.  He's so over the top it's hard to take him seriously.  I think he would have worked better if he were more subtle with smugness while still being genuinely awful.

@Vernon Avaritt I think anything other than him making his choice would betray his characterization so far.  Maybe he hesitates a bit longer.  Guess we'll see.

@gawed What Luna's done to this point is already a little messed up.  Another delay would probably make it a pain point in their relationship.  Certainly a way to cause drama and keep the story going, though I'm not sure that would be the best for the story.

@NamelessGoblin There's another reason that's easy to forget: at least some of the audience will be her age, or even younger.  Many authors cast a wide net, probably don't much care if the reason someone likes a character is normal or weird.

I am several times older than characters like Sailor Moon or Asuka from Evangelion.  However, those stories are old!  When they released, all of those characters were older than me!  Fictional character age is weird like that.

As for this story, it leans more into the "everyone likes the guy" fantasy than a realistic portrayal of what the world would be like.  But it seems to at least try to portray the latter as well.  He has everyone from a middle schooler to an office lady after him to cover the fantasy.  Might as well give their perspective then.

It also makes sense in a dating market that's is extremely like this story that girls would basically take any half decent guy they could get.  Consider how rough dating can be in the real world right now.  There are selective pressures, and unreasonable expectations.  It's pretty hard, even though the ratio is close to 1:1.  In a hypothetical world like this story, the 80% gender would be desperate.  The average 20% would take them for granted and treat them poorly, which the story portrays.  MC, simply by being a relatively normal person, is the best chance these girls will likely get for many years, unless they want to jump in as someone's 4th wife or w/e.  Of course they're going to try for it.

@Wrantheim True, but it would be a little too meta for MC to think that way, haha.  If he knows anything about her he can rule it less likely too.

@RecklessSavage Nah, they're both pretty bad.  Lots of stuff gets tracked on the floor, even indoors, especially in public places.  Can have a wide swath of not-great stuff.  With hair, you MIGHT get lucky and the person washed it that morning, but there are certainly no guarantees.  It's a good idea to avoid both of these things.

@Nah She was a dark horse from the start, but the author has done an excellent job making the girls likeable.

@RecklessSavage MC has been pretty decent so far, but yeah that was rough.  Better than the floor, not good.  It's creepy too, but plausible that someone who already really likes him wouldn't frame it that way.  Makes sense he's not perfect yet, but should still not eat dirty stuff lol.

@Joel The mother is way more plausible than the school staff.  She SHOULD care this much, unlike the staff which were over the top.  Dialogue is w/e, and probably losing some in translation, but this was completely fine.

@RecklessSavage Sure, but this one is also weird.  I would conclude same as you though.

@Makotoxvii It's a manga, so I give it ~90% odds to wind up as one of loli or time skip.  There is a small chance he will remain a proper guardian and wind up with someone else (likely through connections with her, as she's the savior of the world and he would be very respectable in such a hypothetical).  Her impression of him is so strong that she might force the issue when she's older too, effectively dragging him using her status...wouldn't be the first time manga has done it.

If you were to put it on Kalshi, time skip to school where game takes places --> her liking him over the normal romance routes from the game would have the highest odds I suspect.  Something else would be interesting, I guess we'll see what the author picks!

@Exthralith The father is even worse than he seemed in chapter 1, and that's impressive in a bad way.  The understanding he had when he "sold" her (in his mind) is even worse than the abuse.  There won't be many "buyers" in that context where the girl's life would be decent.  From one kind of torture to another.  I'm not sure which is worse, but the father was willing to do both.

MC should out him ASAP.  There's no way his daughter was the only person suffering from his actions, and it's highly doubtful his actions are strictly legal, even in a hellscape world like these isekai tend to be.