Pirberg's main gate was a madhouse of people trying to enter the city.
Brüs had been a city of decent size in its own right, but after seeing Pirberg, that assessment needed revising.
"It's packed."
"Of course it is. People from the Darvar side are scrambling to get here, too."
According to Drik, the Talios Order had relocated its headquarters entirely to Pirberg, away from its former base in the Darvar cities.
Pirberg, which received the full bounty of the Silvern River, was, to exaggerate only slightly, big enough to stand comparison with the central cities near the capital.
'......Does this mean the Talios Order has grown powerful enough to seize a city like this?'
I briefly recalled the days when I'd had a connection with them.
A little over fifty years ago.
It had been during an unprecedented territorial war, when three northern domains clashed with a coalition from the south and west.
At the time, I'd been stationed on the frontlines of the south-west alliance and ran into the Talios lot from the north.
Whether my arms were cut off or my legs broken, I paid no mind and cut them down.
Before I knew it, the survivors had dropped to their knees and were praying to me.
'What are you doing?'
'You must surely be an apostle sent down by the great Talios.'
'What nonsense.'
'The Talios Order venerates strength. Because it is strength that leads crusades to victory. And you seem not to need even that.'
'Crusades?'
'To the Talios Order, every battle is a holy thing. Even without overwhelming force, you are as good as a god commanding the crusade, so if you are not our apostle, what could you be?'
Talios was the god of battle, and his order worshipped combat itself.
In their eyes, the Undying, who slaughtered enemies even while impaled on blades, was nothing less than the incarnation of war.
I was elevated to the status of apostle of the Talios Order practically overnight.
They hung on my every word, and if I'd actually told them to die, they would have screamed Talios's name and driven a blade into themselves.
I did leave in the end, but not before spending a few years with the Talios Order, living on their hospitality.
Being treated like a god might sound pleasant in the abstract, but the reality was anything but.
Having throngs of people descend on you at all hours to prostrate themselves was a level of tedium that only someone who'd lived through it could understand.
"That's been a while, too."
"Come to think of it, Brother, you seem to have some history with Talios. Are you some kind of high-ranking bishop?"
"......Something like that."
While I skirted the truth, lacking the confidence to explain that history to Drik, our group was steadily approaching the main gate.
"The order's influence really is formidable here."
Even the gatekeepers had the Talios Order's emblem engraved into their armor.
Three swords crossed over one another.
A fitting crest for the Talios Order, which had tossed shields to the dogs.
"Tell me about it. Pirberg is a religious city now. The lord himself invited the order in, and then got swallowed by them."
The Talios Order's grip on the city was impossible to ignore; they had even gotten their hands on the military.
"Darvar was never a particularly strong domain to begin with. It was the sheer might of the order that let them pick a fight with Slonhar."
"So being consumed was inevitable."
The line at the gate shrank, and our turn came.
The merchant approached and asked about my plans.
"If you have no other engagements, I'm willing to pay a premium on the condition that you escort my wagons every quarter. Are you moving on from Pirberg right away?"
"Not sure. But I won't be traveling with you."
"Fair enough."
Since I'd received the willow bark as my commission the moment I accepted the job, there was no additional payment owed to me.
Drik, however, was a different matter.
"Sir merchant, I'll be parting ways here as well. I've got somewhere to be with Brother."
Drik had been formally hired by the merchant, with an advance due upon completion of the escort.
While Drik settled his pay, Kallen came over.
"Sir knight, what's the plan from here?"
"The order, first."
Enlisting the order's help was overwhelmingly better than searching alone.
All the more so when that order controlled the city and revered me as a divine apostle, so there was no reason not to accept their aid.
After hearing me say I'd head straight for the order, Drik asked:
"All well and good, but how? Being a high-ranking bishop, can you just walk into their headquarters?"
I produced the Talios Order pendant from inside my coat and held it up.
It was the Apostle's Sigil I'd been given when I left the order.
"The gatekeeper looks like he's with the order, so if I show him this, he'll take us where we need to go."
Drik gave a that-makes-sense sort of nod, and Kallen, who already regarded me as something like a god, said nothing.
After the merchants and their party had all disappeared beyond the gate, we stood before the gatekeeper.
"Purpose of visit?"
The armor I'd bought in Brüs had gotten grimy enough over the fortnight that the gatekeeper didn't mistake me for a knight.
"I'm here to meet the order's chapter master."
"......You think the chapter master is someone who meets with you just because you want him to?"
I wordlessly held up the sigil.
The soldier examined the metal pendant and said:
"And? What's this supposed to mean?"
"......."
The gatekeeper not recognizing the sigil was something I hadn't anticipated.
The Apostle's Sigil was somewhat different from the standard emblem, and I had overlooked the fact that after so many years, naturally few would recognize it.
"I am, in fact, an apostle of Talios. I came to your order fifty-six years ago and delivered a revelation. This is the sigil."
The soldier looked at me as though examining an insect.
Drik's expression wasn't much different, and Kallen's eyes went wide as saucers, as if he believed it.
"......Listen, friend. Just pay the gate toll and I'll let you through quietly."
"The chapter master—"
"Enough of the bullshit. Get moving."
I was all but shoved through the gate after being relieved of the toll.
'This has gotten complicated.'
At this rate, reaching the order's headquarters was going to require a significantly more roundabout approach.
Not only that, but even if I somehow got to the order's headquarters, there was no guarantee they would recognize the sigil.
'Can I not count on Talios's help after all?'
Their help was indispensable.
If the chapter master here could recognize the sigil, then I'd have to meet him even if it meant infiltrating the place.
"......Brother, have you by any chance taken a bad blow to the head?"
Drik was outright doubting me now.
It wasn't until I offered something between an explanation and an excuse that I managed to escape his skeptical glare.
"Fine, I'll believe you. Your skill's the real deal, at least."
When bandits had attacked the wagons, I'd deliberately fought without sustaining a single visible wound.
If my unkillable body had been discovered at that point, the complications would have been endless.
"Still, I never would've guessed you were that old, Brother. Over sixty at the very least, is what you're saying. Your voice sounds about the same age as me."
"I know, right? I'm seeing you in a whole new light, sir knight."
"......."
And I couldn't exactly take off my helm to show them my face.
While I wrestled privately with a secret I couldn't share, Kallen took things even further.
"Ah! Is that why you were so desperate to hide your face back then.......?"
"That's enough."
The age debacle didn't die down until I smacked Kallen upside the head.
"Let's gather information first."
That was the first thing I said after we'd taken a room at an inn and gathered together.
We needed to walk Pirberg to learn the exact scale of the order and, if possible, find out whether Findel was here.
"Kallen, wander the city and look for Findel. Describe his appearance at every inn you visit. Drik, you're coming with me."
"Where to?"
"Where else? The order, obviously."
Drik looked at me with half-doubting eyes.
I shut him up with a single line.
"Don't you want to become a paladin?"
"......Understood."
I sent Kallen off, then followed Drik toward the order's grounds.
Even among Pirberg's countless buildings, the Talios Order stood out.
"This is it?"
"That's the place."
And no wonder, for it was a castle.
Atop the fortress that had once belonged to the lord of Slonhar, the Talios Order's crest flaunted its majesty.
"......Unbelievable. They've even taken the inner keep. The bastards outgrew a mere lord long ago."
The religious city, Pirberg.
I'd interpreted Drik's earlier words as meaning the Talios Order held immense influence, but I'd been wrong.
Pirberg was quite literally a city of religion, of the Talios Order.
At this point, there was nothing the order's reach hadn't touched, not just the military.
"So, now that you've seen it in person, any idea how to draw the chapter master out?"
The order's power exceeded even that.
Enough that a single chapter master could hold an entire major city in his palm.
"Yeah."
A plan lit up in my mind like a flash.
Their bloated size would be their undoing.
I spent the rest of the day observing the people coming and going from the order's headquarters.
I'd considered helping Kallen search for Findel, but since I didn't know the man's face, there was nothing I could do.
"Not a trace of him."
Dusk had fallen.
Those were Kallen's words when he returned to the inn.
Naturally, in a city the size of Pirberg, finding a single person could easily take months.
"That's fine. Good work."
Still, the fact that not a single innkeeper had even seen someone matching his description was certainly odd.
It meant Findel had gone to considerable lengths to hide.
"By the way, Brother, who is this Findel, and why are we looking for him?"
I gave Drik a blend of truth and fiction to explain the pursuit of Findel.
Telling the full story would have required bringing up Luxeon, and that in turn would have meant explaining Eladin and the centuries I'd lived.
"Want me to put out feelers through the mercenary network?"
"That wouldn't be wise."
An order that completely controlled the city might go unnoticed, but if mercenaries started sniffing around, word would inevitably reach Findel's ears.
Rather than scratch up a sore for nothing, it was better to rely on the order's sure help.
"So in the end, the order's help is even more critical."
Now that the conversation had circled back to the order, I rose from my seat.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm off to the order."
A hand caught me as I was leaving the room.
Drik.
"I don't know what this plan is, but you're sure about it?"
"Yeah."
I gave him a nod.
I'd already told Drik I'd be making my move tonight, so he'd fill Kallen in.
I pulled out the Apostle's Sigil and gave it a little wave.
"By tomorrow morning, I'll have the order's chapter master on his knees before you."
I'd been commanding Formel to come to Pirberg all day.
This was a plan that couldn't have existed without Formel in the first place.
I received Formel's signal that he had just arrived, and rescinded my order to approach the city.
Then, simultaneously, I issued a new command.
'Formel. Destroy the largest castle in the city.'