??? With a February release of the much hated Interlude how could you even conceive of a July release for ep9? That would mean a flat 5 months of development, something DPC hasn't been able to pull off in a very long time. Even an August release would be astonishing!
from the end of November to the end of July is 8 months, which is already 2 months longer than the normal cycle.
part of the time has been occupied by the launches on GOG and STEAM, but I think we're talking about a few weeks (2-3).
now we have to see how much the interlude is extra work or how much is at least partially an anticipation of the ninth chapter
for me it should have been the normal flashback of the beginning of the episode, on steroids to justify the autonomous release
July remains an optimistic estimate but in my opinion not impossible