Help with understanding quoting in this passage, and past events or future?


I'm reading a story in Japanese (a short novel in digital format) and here's
two lines from the end of the chapter I'm reading:

> 後に、争乱の全てを知ったガーディアンの一人が口にした。
>
> そんな彼だからこそ、健二郎というガーディアンだからこそ、世界そのものに臨む資格があったのかもしれないと。

Context - before these two lines, the author was describing the nature of a
character (健二郎) by stating some of his shortcomings, especially compared to
his fellow "ガーディアン".

My question is, A) is line 2 a quotation linked to line 1 and is basically
quoting what "ガーディアンの一人が口にした"/ "one of the guardians […] said". I'm not sure
if it's a direct quotation of "ガーディアンの一人" because there was white spacing
between the two lines ( spacing between paragraphs) rather than being in one
paragraph together. I'm not familiar with Japanese novels, so perhaps this is
a normal formatting in novels?

And B) as for parsing the first line is how I would do it:

> later on, one of the guardians who knew everything about the dispute spoke.

But is "後に" referring to something that will happen later or something that
has already happened later? I know 口にした is past tense and I'd be more inclined
to believe the latter, however from the general context, it makes me think
this line is describing a future event. So perhaps it would be better parsed
as "later on, one of the guardians who knew everything about the dispute would
say it to him." And then insert quotation. Your help is greatly appreciated!




> A) Is it a direct quotation of "ガーディアンの一人"

It is a quotation of "ガーディアンの一人", which isindicated by the last kana "と" in
the second paragraph.

> B) Is this future or past

From the contents here, I feel it is something that has already happened
later.

If it feels like a future event according to general context, maybe the write
has just shifted to another narative angle that is viewing the whole event
(and the quote) as in the past.

