How to Live as a Knight After the Ending

Chapter 15: The Road to the Industrial Age (2)

“Huh.”

Osian couldn’t help but chuckle at Ronan’s comment.

What you mean is that you are planning to get rid of me by making a very dangerous request that I cannot solve?”

Ronan shook his head, mildly denying Osian’s speculation.

“It’s the opposite.”

“The opposite?”

“What I was saying was that they were purely considering Mr. Osian’s abilities and were making the request.”

“But I interfered with their work.”

“That’s how you proved yourself.”

Osian suddenly understood what Ronan was trying to say.

“I see. Even if they were interrupted, if their opponent was really good, they’d still be able to…….”

“Yeah, they just flip their attitude like the palm of their hand.”

“Isn’t that the nature of corporations?”

“A corporation is a group of people who are only in it for the ‘profit’. If you’re a fixer they can pay to hire, they’ll neatly forget what happened in the past and join hands.”

That still didn’t make sense to Osian.

He thought that even a corporation could not help but act with mixed emotions.

‘Isn’t the corporate world the most vindictive place in the world?’

When Osian looked unconvinced, Ronan explained.

“Of course, if there’s public defamation, a corporation will retaliate, because they care about their image.”

“Public, honor.”

Ronan nodded, realizing that Osian was getting straight to the point.

“What Mr. Osian experienced this time was an unofficial, shadowy incident at the company. There, he has no reputation to be tarnished by being interrupted. On the contrary, if they try to use that as an excuse to mess with Mr. Osian, it would be like confessing that they are plotting bad things behind people’s backs.”

“I see. I understand.”

Even with that in mind, the business of this world seemed to run quite rationally.

Or rather, beyond that, they were so rational that you wondered if they were human beings with blood in their veins.

Even those who had turned against them were the first to reach out when the opportunity arose to bring in new power.

“The corporations are more powerful than I thought.”

It made sense in his head, but in his heart, they were too calculating.

Normally, he’d be emotionally furious and want to retaliate in some way.

In the grand scheme of things, it was a good thing for Osian but watching it, he couldn’t help but feel indescribably uncomfortable.

“Business doesn’t care about honor. It only cares about practicality. All they care about is profit. That’s why they’ve become more than a medium-sized company in the harsh world of Tirna.”

Is that what a mid-sized company is like?

Ossian wondered what would be considered a large company in Tirna.

“It’s actually good for Mr. Osian, because he might get a new client, and if this goes well, a permanent one.”

“What’s a permanent client?”

“It’s like a regular client who literally only goes to one person.”

“That doesn’t sound like a very appealing option.”

“Fixers are freelancers – they can work when they want to, and sometimes they can’t, and it’s usually the latter.”

The industry is pure meritocracy.

If you don’t have the skills, you don’t get the work.

Clients want to work with experienced people, not newbies but if it’s a beginner, then they want a promising one.

They’re also better than experienced people because they’re younger, and their prices were lower.

So, most of the time, clients will specify the talent.

“In the industry, it’s called a ‘named assignment’. Usually, veterans who have built up a reputation and have a nickname or something like that will qualify for these assignments.”

Once you’ve successfully executed on those ‘assignments’ and built up your credibility, the next step becomes possible.

Corporations, Tirna City, Magic Tower, Associations, etc.

When a large organization applies for an important assignment, they choose only one fixer.

Such a request is called a ‘fixed request’.

This is a request that can only be fulfilled by a special A-rank Fixer among the many Fixers in Tirna.

It was the beginning of stability, which is a fixer’s dream.

If you go further, you can even work for the organization that placed the order and wear their business card.

You can retire as a fixer and become an external advisor to companies.

You can make a lot of money and have a stable income.

It’s the standard path that every fixer wants to take but Osian wasn’t too happy about it.

‘A life of doing what you’re told, I can’t imagine it.’

Belonging to an organization gives you security, but it also takes away your freedom.

A life of subordination where you have to do what you’re told.

To a wandering knight who longed for freedom, nothing could be more terrifying.

“Anyway, you don’t need to worry, Mr. Osian, everything will be fine.”

“I wasn’t really worried.”

“Then I’m glad to hear it.”

Ronan smiled wryly.

“I can’t wait to see when a corporation will suddenly put in a request for Mr. Osian.”

“Are there any other suspicious organizations besides corporations?”

“Suspicious organizations?”

“Just tell me what kind of people are in this Tirna.”

“That shouldn’t be difficult.”

Ronan explained that there were fugitives from outside the city, veterans, criminal organizations growing in power from within the city, and cults.

Osian nodded in understanding as he listened.

‘Most of the people I knew are gone.’

In the game, there was no shortage of enemies: unholy warlocks, heretics who worshiped foreign gods, corrupted taint monsters, and more but as the world changed, so did they.

Now, new organizations have emerged, befitting the new age.

Osian was suddenly curious.

‘So, what happened to the organizations and boss monsters in the original game?’

In the game, there were some beings that could resist the passage of time.

Ancient wraiths, sealed demons, cursed dragons, and spirit beasts.

There was a good chance they were still alive.

‘Or maybe they were exterminated along the way but I’m not sure since I’m still adjusting to the new world.’

The factory was built where the secret dungeon was in the game.

The dungeon was inside a mountain, which had been pushed into the mountain.

The dungeon, the monsters inside, all the rewards and so on were likely gone, too.

‘I’ll have to get some information on this before my next request.’

For now, gathering information was essential.

Once that was done, Osian’s knowledge would be valuable once again, even after all these years.

*

Arriving at the place Ronan had written down, Osian stood in the doorway and looked up at the building.

It was a tenement house in the crowded 39th district.

This was where Osian would live from now on and his room was on the third floor.

‘From the outside, it looks a lot better than I thought.’

Tenement houses were originally reserved for people who didn’t have much money.

They were mainly inhabited by florists, clerks, laborers, coachmen, and engineers.

Many of them even shared the same house because of the high rent.

Fortunately, Osian was able to live on his own without a roommate, thanks to Ronan’s accommodations.

This is where having a middleman came in handy. He takes care of all the hassle.

It also helped that Ronan is a very capable person.

‘He said that I could save more money and buy my own place later.’

As long as he had a place to sleep, he didn’t really care.

That didn’t mean he didn’t like money, of course.

More money is always better.

The room on the third floor was colored in light brown and subtle brass.

The interior was furnished with all the necessities of life, from the leather sofa to the rug on the floor to the carved curtains on the windows.

Surprisingly, in this day and age, there was even a refrigerator.

‘Something tells me this is better than the studio I was living in.’

After I got my first job, I settled into a studio near my office for a quick commute.

The studio was cramped in the capital, and the rent was murderous.

After paying the rent and management fees, I didn’t have much left over from my salary.

So naturally, I couldn’t imagine any other life, and when I came home, I burned the weekends playing games.

‘Above all, this is just a house, a place to stay.’

Looking at the house, life seemed better than the one I lived before.

‘I’ve definitely thought about going back.’

Osian wondered what he would do if he did go back.

He would go back to work, do his job, and drag his exhausted body back to his cramped one-room apartment.

With no family or friends, why would he go back to such a monotonous and stifling life?

‘I don’t know.’

Osian sat down on a seat with a decent view of the window and opened the book he had brought with him.

He had borrowed it from Ronan, and it was a history of this world.

‘I used to read descriptions of miscellaneous items like this in-game.’

In the game, the books you could pick up sometimes only had two or three pages of text, but here I could see the entire book.

Seeing this makes me feel very real that this world is real.

Osian immediately opened the book and read it.

I don’t know if it’s a perk of being possessed by this world, but it’s easy to read even if it’s an unfamiliar language.

How much time has passed since the original ending, and what has happened since then?

The big events definitely needed to be cemented in my mind.

A few pages into the book, Osian’s eyes lit up when he came across an interesting passage.

“The invention of machinery and the discovery of new uses for ether water?”

Ether water was a new energy source that had become indispensable in the world since the Industrial Revolution.

It was also something that hadn’t existed at all in Osian’s time.

‘It’s like oil in this world.’

The difference from oil is that ether water is exactly what it sounds like: water.

It’s just that it contains a higher concentration of energy than normal water.

Osian studied the entry on ether water in detail.

Ether Water was discovered four hundred years ago.

It all started when an adventurer discovered a huge underground cave and discovered the ether water flowing within it.

Ether water is underground water infused with so-called mana.

It was also known as water from the gods.

The book was accompanied by black-and-white illustrations.

They were pictures of miners being doused from head to toe with ether water gushing from cracks in the earth.

After the development of the Industrial Revolution, people used it in steam engines.

With its high concentration of energy, the ether water meshed with the steam engine to produce tremendous efficiency and became an indispensable energy source for the world.

Thus, the world of mystery and magic entered the age of machinery and industry.

‘The white steam rising from the city was the vapor of the Ether Water.’

The Ether Water changed many things in the world.

No longer were carriages pulled by horses.

Instead, the roads were paved with white, steamy automobiles.

Railroads and steam locomotives replaced the big top processions.

It was said that airships in the sky stretched out into the world, and that the development of transportation had united all races.

Osian scratched his head.

The world had changed, but it had changed too much.

‘But still, the biggest change in the world is this.’

Turning the page, Osian stared at the entry.

At the top of the page, in large black letters, it read.

[The Fall of the Knights]