358. Vanishing of Escort Ship Part 2

“We will continue investigating this immediately, so just rest for now... ” Alice said, her voice carrying an odd, awkward softness as everyone stood gathered around Ravenna’s bed.

“You haven’t informed the knights' families about the disappearance yet, right?” Ravenna asked urgently, pushing herself up slightly against the pillows. “We absolutely cannot have Katrina being stressed over this. It won’t be good for the child.”

“It’s only been a single day since they missed their scheduled arrival,” Laila reassured her gently, stepping forward. “We won’t even have to let it get to that point. We will find the ship and uncover the cause before anyone panics. You just need to focus on resting.”

Rexford remained standing silently by the heavy bedroom door. After offering Ravenna a long, intense look, he was the first to quietly slip out into the corridor, leading the rest of the inner circle out so the room could clear. Marie stayed behind for a few seconds longer, leaning over the mattress. “Grandpa Faldeus is scheduled to leave for the Western Continent very soon... Rest well so you can send him off properly, Mother,” she whispered with a small smile before finally heading out the door and closing it softly behind her.

Left entirely alone, Ravenna let out a long, ragged sigh. She placed a trembling hand over her forehead, her fingers slowly rubbing her temples to soothe the throbbing ache behind her eyes.

“This is just too much... So many overwhelming things are happening all at once,” she breathed into the quiet room.

“Alice found out the truth about my transmigration... and now she doesn’t fully trust me anymore,” she mumbled, staring blankly up at the vaulted stone ceiling as she lay back down on the bed. “Then there are the suppressed memories of young Ravenna, revealing that she.. I am an unintentional mass murderer... the real reason why that Universal Origin artifact in the Imperial Palace was never found by anyone else but me, simply because it was young Ravenna herself who hid it in a magical vault years ago.”

She closed her eyes, but the thoughts only swirled faster. “The information that Hero Luminous was an Otherworlder just like me, the system upgrade... and now, a whole escort ship has vanished into thin air.”

Curling onto her side and pulling her knees slightly toward her chest, Ravenna continued to whisper her darkest thoughts to the empty room. “I personally changed John’s assignment at the very last minute to this specific escort mission because... because I wanted him to return early so he could stay by his pregnant wife’s side. But now, because of my choice, we don’t even know if he is still alive...”

“Just... what on earth am I supposed to do?”

Ravenna felt completely suffocated, a heavy, invisible hand seemingly squeezing tightly around her heart and body. The guilt that had been forcefully suppressed by young Ravenna’s memory loss was now returning in full force, intertwining with her current responsibilities and the terrifying new crises running through her head.

“Jessica Ronin…”

Suddenly, the name popped into Ravenna’s mind, bringing with it the vivid image of the haughty adult Jessica, juxtaposed cruelly against the memory of the little girl sobbing and screaming as her mother was dragged away in chains. “The novel only ever mentioned that Ravenna had wronged Jessica's mother for disrespecting her... but it never went into the horrific details of what actually happened. Jessica’s hostility toward me isn't just petty noble rivalry. It is totally, completely justified after what I did to her family…”

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Remembering the intricate pirate attack scheme Jessica had orchestrated against Jola, and how she had coldly flipped the trap around to force the entire Ronin family to submit to her rule, Ravenna felt a sick twist of shame. She was feeling all kinds of conflicting emotions at her own ruthless actions and the bitter aftermath of that victory.

Swiping her hand through the air, she pulled up the newly upgraded orange interface, navigating back through the archived alerts.

[ Reputation System v4.1 ] (New)

Title: Viscountess

Name: Jessica Ronin

Reason: Jessica is plagued by worry over her upcoming attack on Jola in a few weeks and recently had a nightmare about the humiliation Ravenna inflicted on her mother.

Background: Jessica Ronin is an ambitious noblewoman who recently inherited her father’s title. She is driven by a desire to elevate her family’s status, a trait she admired in her mother. However, the scandal at the ball years ago traumatized her and continues to haunt her dreams. The incident left her mother ruined and strained the Ronin family’s relationships with other noble houses. Jessica’s fear and resentment toward Ravenna have only deepened since.

Ravenna stared blankly at the old notification: the exact point increase she had received right before the attack on her dukedom, the one that had allowed her to anticipate Jessica’s moves and crush her.

“She... she is still haunted by what I did to her mother,” Ravenna mumbled, her voice barely a whisper as she stared at the glowing orange panel.

“Ravenna Solarius... really is a true Villainess, huh...” She let out a dry, self-deprecating chuckle. Closing the panel, the sharp, rhythmic ticking of the wall clock kept ringing in her ears, pulling her into a dazed look, totally lost in her own drowning thoughts.

“It was a peaceful gathering! An innocent, peaceful assembly of over three thousand people, and nearly every single soul was slaughtered in cold blood!”

Duke Albert Roland’s agonized words from her recovered memory oddly rang back in her mind, echoing from a distant past. The phantom words felt heavily accusing, cutting into her conscience like a sharp, jagged blade.

Then, all at once, the ticking of the clock seemed to stop. Ravenna suddenly bolted upright, sitting straight up in the bed as a freezing realization gripped her spine.

“W... Wait...” she breathed, her breath hitching. “Duke Roland lost his beloved wife in the Nicola Uprising... and he later started secretly supporting Prince Landon. And Landon was the only person, from what I just saw in my memory, who knew I was the one who leaked the archive information...”

Her eyes widened in sheer horror as the scattered pieces of her life began violently connecting in her mind.

“Huh? You actually think that attempt was on your life? Don’t kid yourself, Young Lord Roland.”

The words from the academy days echoed in her ears. The explosion incident from her academy years, the very event that had originally brought her close to Rexford, replayed in her mind in vivid detail. Right alongside it, the explosion assassination attempt on her during Emperor Andrew’s imperial funeral flashed in her memory, an attack utilizing the signature, highly specialized Roland family’s explosion spell.

“No... no way. It can’t be right... can it?” Ravenna muttered to the empty room, her hands gripping the silk sheets until her knuckles turned white. “Rexford has been Ravenna's... my lover since our academy days. He has always claimed he doesn’t get along with his family, right...?”

A cold sweat broke out across her forehead as the terrifying theory solidified.

“There is no way... he hasn’t been conning me for years just to get his ultimate revenge for his mother, right? That... that can’t be right...?”