"Sigh." Raven out a long, weary exhale as she slumped deeper into the velvet chair iudy. A dim dle flickered beside her, castiless shadows on the walls lined with bookshelves. The air was thick with the st of aged part and ink, yet despite the peaceful atmosphere, her mind was anything but at ease.

  For what felt like the fortieth time, she ht’s quest, desperately trying to piece together a timeline of past events—what had ged, what remaihe same, and what unforeseen ripples might still be f.

  She muttered under her breath, "The st time a small ge happened, it caused such a massive shift… Marie is here instead of being in the Western ti. I ’t afford another ued deviation."

  She took up her notebook, flipping through pages filled with carefully written observations, theories, and specutions.

  There was one gring truth she had noted over and over: by the novel’s inal timeline, she should have been dead before ever reag Jo.

  "So that means the battle between Jo’s forces and Ronin Town’s knights—disguised as pirates—never happened in the novel." Ravenna frowned as she scrawled this new insight onto the page, her quill scratg against the part.

  That alone was a signifit divergence. If she had been fated to die before arriving in Jo, theire sequence of events surrounding her exile had pyed out differently than what was written.

  She had carefully molded Jo’s g system to ehat she maintained an iron grip on the isnd’s affairs. Every decision was deliberate, each policy crafted to keep the story from deviating too drastically while still ensuring Jo’s survival.

  But why? In Light’s quest, Ravenna was never mentioned again after her exile in the first arc. The story simply moved on as if she had ceased to exist. This was bizarre for several reasons.

  If she had died in Ronin Town, as seemed likely, then her death would have undoubtedly reached the imperial pace. There would have been an imperial funeral—perhaps a ention in the novel, even if only to highlight the downfall of a disgraced princess.

  Yet, nothing.

  It was as though her very existence had been erased. Ravenna tapped her quill against her notebook, deep in thought.

  "Did the Ronin family seize trol of Jo without the imperial paotig? Could they have used it as a secret site to dispose of their sves when William began his hunt for sve traders?"

  It was a chilling possibility, but something didn’t add up. Hughes, John, and the rest of her ente would have reported her death if that were the case. It wouldn’t have been a quiet affair.

  No, something else had happened.

  She rubbed her temples, frustration building.

  "If I assume the poison didn't kill Ravenna in the inal timeline…" she murmured.

  That would meaill made it to Jo. If that were true, then the most logical course of a would have been to sail to the Western ti, leveragiatus as an apostle of Herptian to rally support. The Herptian Church could have provided her with resources, meraries, and trade es.

  From there, she could have returned with the bag to establish Jo as a proper trade hub—a logical, calcuted move that fit the Ravenna she ko be.

  Yet, in the novel’s sed half, which rgely took p the Western ti, there was still ion of her.

  That meant… she never made it there.

  But why?

  "Ugh, this is eating away at my brain." Ravenna groaned, dropping her quill with an irritated flick of her wrist. She leaned ba her chair, staring at the ceiling as if it held the answers she was searg for.

  If the novel never mentioned what happeo her, then how could she track what small ges she had already caused? How could she prevent even rger deviations from spiraling out of trol?

  Ravenna exhaled sharply, setting aside her notes. "At least the structure of my administration is w in my favor," she thought, drumming her fingers against her desk.

  In Light’s quest, the entire Eastern ti lunged into devastating wars, resulting in catastrophic death tolls and eurmoil. Yet, Jo was never once mentioned again after her exile. That meant, in the inal timelihe isnd had been isoted from the mais, left untouched by the infamous Witch of the West’s army due to its remote location.

  This was both an advantage and a curse.

  Ravenna needed Jo to prosper, but not so much that it would draw the empire’s attention or cause eic ripples that could alter the politidscape. The moment Jo became too signifit, the imperial pace would iably intervene, and that was something she couldn't allow.

  The solution? Absolute trol over every business, trade, and teological development on the isnd.

  Her administrative structure ehat all eic activities flowed through her hands. She had positioned herself as the tral authority in Jo’s ey, making sure that no indepe power could rise and make reckless decisions that might alter the novel’s course.

  This trol gave her two critical advantages:

  Total authority over teological advas. Any innovation produced in Jo would remain in her hands, preventing outside forces from stealing ideas and using them against her iure at least until the main plot of the novel passes.

  An irrepceable position in Jo’s goverhe imperial pace might one day reize Jo’s prosperity, but removing her would be impossible without colpsing the very system that made the isnd thrive.

  She had seen this happen once before the previous caretaker of Jo had been stripped of his position ht. She wouldn’t suffer the same fate.

  With a deep breath, Ravenna leaned ba her chair, massagiemples. "Thinking about the oo much is giving me a headache." Dwelling on things she had no ao would only waste time.

  She had work to do.

  Pulling a fresh stack of dots from the side of her desk, she unfolded the top page and sed its tents. “New Renovations for the Education of the Youth of Jo City.”

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