First I'll discuss the meta significance of this entry. And the discussion begins and ends with "Go read the Patreon/devblog." It is a very, very personal story, and this is made as obvious as possible by the whole camera thing.

Now, on to the meat: Analyzing the foreshadowing, worldbuilding, and predictions for how this entry will affect the future of the series story. Please be aware that from here on is probably going to be heavy spoiler territory for every entry thus far released. (I'm writing this on the fly, so it isn't a structured essay)

Early on, you learn of the Vocasp system and the level of systemic injustice present in a seemingly-utopian society. Riggs and Misha bust this assumption apart by relating their experiences in the Wall District and then turn this view on its head again by insisting that the kingdom clothes them, feeds them, and asks for nothing more of them than for them to exist. Meanwhile you contrast this point of view with Khaji's privileged lifestyle, which seats him in comfort but doesn't allow him to have a larger breadth of consideration for others. He doesn't comprehend that others can be satisfied with basic status, he laments the injustice of this means testing, and the climax of the game involves his realization that there are things more important than what the utilitarian society of Rughzenhaide lauds foremost. Keep in mind this development for later.

Khaji is betrayed by those he looks up to, wrapped in a conspiracy that is small in scale when it comes to countries, but ruins people's livelihoods on the individual level. It starts with Flora speaking of how getting her portrait painted is a pain; she has to sit still for hours looking at room while the painter holes up inside. "What are they doing?" one might ask if they don't know of the camera oscura. And then, it struck me, so fast. Khaji is comparing himself to photographs, which again, ties into the development of lightkravte. He's infringing on the patent that Khrau, whom he trusted as a mentor, and who told him to give up, set forward. The reveal with Khrau in the camera oscura darkroom tracing over the projected image was satisfying in the confirmation.

Now, for the conclusion this leads to. I will make a few points of prediction for this part of LIGHTKRAVTE's story (the A-plot; the B-plot I'll touch upon later).
1.) Khaji is going to end up unearthing this issue. Ritona is getting accosted by the dudes from the StP demo again. He and Ritona have a comms-line set up, and it was pretty much never utilized during LIGHTKRAVTE. He will face active suppression of his technique, and Ritona will be held accountable and forced into something or another. The comms line will be used to have their plot threads converge, leading to Khaji formally taking up the mantle of a journalist.
1a.) You can surmise he's going to be a journalist from his active interest in history and penkravte, the fact that he goes with photos, and the people he associates with. Also the fact that he's getting caught up in a patent-related conspiracy.
1b.) This would help resolve some lingering loose threads from earlier entries and open up more avenues for resolution of major plot points.
2.) The current King Rughzenhaide approved Khrau's patent/monopoly BS. I'm fairly certain Khrau himself didn't intend for it to get this out of hand; the path-down only being at seven generations, prior legal precedent with Vhastoralkan crafts, and, like, everything else tied together to produce this situation. Because the minor conspiracy is tied to like twenty other things, Khaji will get roped into that stuff, too. Again, journalist swag.
3.) This will lead to unearthing like a bajillion things. The Silence the Pedant "poem" on the back of the official t-shirt also ends with Ritona's words (roughly paraphrased bc I don't wanna dig through my closet right now): "♥♥♥♥ your tradition. ♥♥♥♥ your values. I can do this myself." Khaji's personal image of Ritona is how she appears in the main milestone series. It's coming together.

Now that that's done with, we can get to the B-plot shown and what it means for the future, since establishing Khaji's role is important to understanding how this will play out.

When we see Mhen... whatever (it's an odd spelling and we only see it like four times, Flora's sister, sorry), having her breakdown, Khaji gives us information that was mostly unknown prior to this point. First: The Serenhaides are sometimes forced to attempt path-down. Second: The symptoms of a failed path-down are *strikingly familiar*. It produces a harbinger of calamity, a kravter with incredible power and a weak grasp on reality.

1.) That's Melona. That's just straight-up what happened to Melona. But she's also ancient enough to have known Rhegan. So - who came first, the Serenhaides or the Rughzenhaides?
1a.) Mhentaiko (sorry for the bara artist reference in my corruption of her name), during her what I will refer to as "Aberrant Empress Syndrome," tells Selphine (in Empress Syndrome state) that her choice is wrong. She also spends the whole time prior freaking out about "I know you're watching!" The questions to resolve this mystery are: why was Selphine there in the first place? Why was Ritona not able to be reached via comms at this time? How can we compare and contrast this to the Empress Syndrome manifesting in Selphine in the main series?
1b.) I speculate the "full" form of Path-down is much, much more vast in scale than you'd think. "I know you're watching" in the middle of a forest, unprompted, leads to the assumption that either: in the Aberrant Empress Syndrome, the subject's state of heightened awareness (and overstimulation, see the meltdown) allows them to perceive what is essentially God. After all, it takes an omniscient being to just kinda see someone whenever. It's either that, or the Aberrant Empress Syndrome activation was related to Selphine. Flora's sister must have gone to the Perchwood for a reason, and if the reason wasn't related specifically to the beares, then it was related to Selphine, who happened to be there.
2.) If the latter assumption is made, one can conclude that Empress Syndrome is either activated/triggered/stimulated by Aberrant Empress Syndrome, or that it sends out a beacon to those affected by AES. Melona pretty much constantly has a bead on Selphine, eh?
2a.) If the former assumption is made, and Selphine just happened to be there, it would have to be a result of the... I forgot what it was called specifically, but the namesake of the franchise is fault. You know. The leyline teleportation thing. This can provide insight into the mechanism of the larger scale version. I suspect in this case that the large mana wave sent out by AES-onee-chan activated this mechanism, given Selphine appeared right after.

Anyway, the possibilities set forth by this entry are really, really exciting. Others may be frustrated that this release schedule symbolizes an infinite postponing of the conclusion of the series; I view it primarily as a controlled widening of scope. Sometimes you have to add elements to properly resolve plot threads you put in from the beginning.