Gaien said that when Osian was about to ascend, he should have gone to the world beyond, but it seems he failed due to some interference.
He doesn't know what the conditions for ascension are, or what the process entails.
Moreover, he said it was news to him that the process could be interfered with.
But Osian ultimately failed to ascend, and fragments of his power were scattered across the world.
He appeared again on earth, not in heaven, as a human, not a transcendent being.
Looking at just the results, it was enough for Gaien to make such an assumption.
However, Amenora offered a different opinion. She called it a blessing bestowed by Osian, belonging to no one else.
"Why did you call it my blessing?"
If it was a metaphor but he could roughly understand what she meant.
The reign of Law that oppressed the world ended because of Osian.Moreover, after the fragments of power that Osian scattered spread across the world, the world began to change rapidly.
The cause-and-effect relationship isn't clear there. But it's not completely unrelated either.
The catalyst was indeed when Osian overthrew Law. It's just that his contribution ratio wasn't 100 percent.
That was a blank period that even Gaien doesn't know about but Amenora clearly knew about it. Even if not, from the moment she called it a blessing, she must have known about his failed ascension.
"Well, of course! Because it's the freedom you bestowed upon the world."
"If you're talking about overthrowing Law, I already know about that from what I've heard."
"No. I'm talking about what happened right after that."
Right after that would mean the moment of ascension.
The game's clear.
This world's ending.
The end of all journeys where the only given choice was to move on to the next playthrough and start over.
Looking back now, Osian didn't really like game endings.
He enjoyed exploring this world and had fun fighting various bosses.
He liked sightseeing around the world, appreciating the magnificent backgrounds and artwork, and listening to the uniquely grand music but when you see the game's ending, everything just ends.
Everything you enjoyed becomes just a memory of the past and Osian really hated that.
Although he knew that if there's a beginning there must eventually be an end, he couldn't help wanting the world he loved to expand further but nothing would change even if he didn't move on to the next playthrough.
The world would just remain frozen in the ending state.
'Perhaps this current world is the blueprint I've been dreaming of in my heart.'
Of course, he thinks it couldn't be helped that it came this far into the future.
Still, this world is the post-ending he had been yearning for.
However, he still doesn't know why he fell into this world.
He's just living here, adapting, because he came here, like floating debris without a target.
There's no discomfort in that, but a subtle uneasiness remains. He just tried not to consciously think about it.
In what seems like a trick of fate, as Osian lived in this world, he gradually faced things he had been avoiding one by one, as if telling him not to run away anymore.
He had no intention of avoiding it.
It was a knight's way to face whatever lay ahead until the end.
"Tell me what happened."
Osian spoke after organizing his thoughts. Until then, Amenora had been sitting quietly, waiting for his words.
She was deeply considerate in such ways.
"Yes. You were originally supposed to ascend. You should have gone to the world beyond and been able to look down upon this world but you didn't."
"Because the ascension was interfered with."
"Interfered with? No. That's not it."
Amenora pointed at Osian with her white, slender finger.
"It was you."
For just a moment, Osian couldn't understand what Amenora was saying.
"The failure of ascension was your intention."
A shocking fact flowed from Amenora's lips.
"My intention?"
"Yes."
Amenora nodded with conviction. Those unwavering eyes were not those of someone telling a lie.
Gaien said the ascension failed due to someone's interference but he overlooked one fact.
What if the person who was supposed to ascend refused the ascension?
That was something neither Gaien nor Osian had considered. More accurately, they hadn't even thought about it.
Because it's common sense that refusing ascension when given the qualification is incomprehensible.
"But that's what you did. You willingly gave up the divinity you had built up by defeating countless gods."
It was hard to believe, but somehow Osian felt it was the truth. That was his intuition as a knight.
"Why?"
Osian couldn't help but ask.
Giving up divinity and refusing ascension, no matter how he thought about it, there was no valid reason.
"Well, I don't know that either, because it was your choice."
"I really don't understand either. Even the fact that I did that still feels surreal."
"You'll be able to find the reason because you've come back like this now."
Osian, who refused ascension, reappeared in this world after crossing a long period of time.
The reason is probably somehow related to his giving up ascension.
"But this won't necessarily turn out to be a good thing."
"Why do you think that?"
"Do you know? After you gave up ascension, the world developed rapidly. And among the various races living in this world, there were those who ascended."
He knew that from what Gaien had told him.
"But recently, their frequency has definitely been decreasing."
"I heard that Ascenders don't appear that often in the first place."
"That's right. Because they had to transcend the limits of their species. After you disappeared, various Ascenders appeared on the continent. There were always one or two of them in any given era. But now it's different."
The line of Ascenders has been cut off.
Hearing this, Osian thought it aligned with what the knight had said.
"The number of Ascenders decreased and at some point, they stopped appearing altogether. I think this series of events is very unnatural. And what confirmed my suspicions was when you appeared."
"You seem to have something you want to say."
"You are the savior of our clan and the benefactor who gave peace to my brother. So I'm always grateful to you. But what I'm about to say might be what you hate hearing the most."
"What could that be?"
"There are no more knights left in this era. Do you know why?"
"Because as the world developed, there were no more people who would wield swords."
The biggest reason would be the development of weapons, unless you could use runes directly by tattooing them on your body like the northern barbarians.
Knights awaken their abilities through endless training and mental cultivation.
Therefore, while that power is very powerful, many people give up because the process is too long and arduous.
The decisive blow to this was the emergence of firearms.
"That might be one reason. But that's not the fundamental reason."
"Are you saying there's another reason?"
"I can't say this with absolute certainty. But if my guess is right, the disappearance of knights...must be due to some external intervention."
‘External intervention.’
Osian's eyebrows twitched at those words.
What Amenora was saying now was that knights didn't naturally disappear with the flow of the world.
"Someone is intentionally cutting off the lineage of knights?"
It was inevitable that his voice would become notably deeper.
Amenora nodded.
She said this knowing it would disturb Osian's mood but Osian couldn't miss the determination in those eyes.
"Who?"
"I don't know either."
"Are you joking right now?"
"It's true. I don't know who but someone unknown definitely cut off the line of knights. Not just that, but the Ascenders too."
Amenora said.
This wasn't a natural flow, but something artificial had intervened.
"At first, I didn't think so because that flow matched too perfectly. As if it was natural for things to be this way. But after seeing you, and looking back on past events, I could find small cracks bit by bit."
"And the conclusion you reached is that someone intentionally cut off the lineage of knights?"
"Someone, probably some organization. Moreover, they must have been consistently active from long ago until now. Probably still are."
"What could their purpose be to do such a thing? There must be a reason why they're only targeting knights."
"I think that's because of you too."
This wasn't surprising at all and he had vaguely expected it.
"Because you were the one who ended Law's reign. If it was a knight who single-handedly accomplished what no one else could, it's natural that they would be wary of knights more than anyone else."
That's right. Osian, as a wandering knight, defeated powerful boss monsters and ultimately defeated the final boss.
What would people who saw that think?
They would think that knights are the most dangerous and should be watched carefully.
"This has been going on consistently for a long time. While there weren't many to begin with, it's unnatural for the lineage to be cut off so miserably."
"Not completely though."
"Yes. I know. The youth who came from outside the city, from very remote areas. Asmer, was it? He was also a knight. His reappearance was also because of your appearance, Sir Osian."
That's correct.
Asmer read the heavenly signs and came to Tirna looking for Osian.
"And now, you are training other knights."
Osian's existence is drawing together the unrecognized sparks of knights in this world.
"Knights disappeared because of someone who was wary of you, but now you've appeared again and are training knights. I sense some great destiny here."
"Let's say everything you're saying is true. The ones who messed with the knights must still be somewhere in this world, and they wouldn't want knights to appear in this world."
"Yes. They will target you. They must know about that power you showed in District 34 by now."
"What's Tirna's position on this?"
Osian asked straightforwardly.
If Amenora had told him all this, he thought she would surely offer something corresponding in return.
"I can help personally, but it would be difficult from the city's perspective."
"That's unexpected. Weren't you Aspirex's benefactor? If you're the mayor's benefactor, you should be able to do most things."
"I don't have much independent authority in this city, and moreover, just because it's Aspirex doesn't mean he can do whatever he wants."
"Are you saying the mayor is being checked?"
"Tirna doesn't have just one mayor. There are five. And these five mayors don't all move with one heart and mind."
Tirna's mayors have helped each other from ancient times, but that was for the city's sake.
If the city was in a stable state, they would instead check each other to reduce each other's authority.
'Right. The mayor is the head of the city, but that doesn't make them a king.'
Absolute monarchy can do anything with the king's authority because no one exists above the king.
As a result, the time it took to spread any law or regulation was very short because it only needed the king's permission but Tirna is not a monarchy.
This is a relationship where multiple leaders cooperate with each other, and even the position of leader is chosen through elections.
It's the limitation of a republic, the opposite of absolute monarchy.
"Among them, the one who checks Aspirex the most is Deliphiros, the mayor elected by humans."
"The human mayor?"
"Yes. Aspirex has maintained his position from long ago, but humans are different. They have a limit to their lifespan. As they age, their wisdom declines and their once-brilliant intellect falls. So the human mayor is elected periodically, and among them, Deliphiros is counted as one of the most clever individuals."
Amenora sighed.
Judging by her reaction while talking about Mayor Deliphiros, it seemed their relationship wasn't good.
"Deliphiros is a humanist. That means he thinks humans are the greatest, and he doesn't like other beings ruling the city as they please."
"He must inevitably have a bad relationship with Aspirex."
"He thinks it's unfair that beings who are inherently close to immortality hold positions. Rather, he thinks cases like Aspirex are eating away at the city. So he checks very persistently. He's looking for an opportunity to oust him somehow. And the district governors and council members under him also support Deliphiros."
That wasn't very good news.