After the meal ended, the chapter master headed for the council chamber on the first floor of the central tower.
Among the people who then arrived one after another were faces I knew and faces I did not.
The Third Corps' commander, the representative of the faces I knew, was the first to take a seat at the central table.
Walter, who had disappeared along with her, was nowhere to be seen.
"Where is the commander of the Second Corps?"
"I did not summon him, as I thought he would not suit this operational council."
The one who answered me was the chapter master, who was spreading an enormous map over the table.
A little more time passed, and no empty seats remained.
Drik and Kallen were seated side by side next to me.
"Then, as it seems everyone who is coming has come, I shall begin the operational council."
The chapter master, who had been standing, stepped forward.
He did not go out of his way to introduce me to those meeting me for the first time.
"The purpose of this operational council is to ascertain the movements of the search target 'Findel Morein,' who is in hiding within Pirberg's jurisdiction, and to determine the related countermeasures."
The map laid on the table was a rough plan of Pirberg, drawn exactly as it was.
The chapter master tapped the points marked here and there on the map.
"The Third Guard Corps of the commercial district and the Fifth Guard Corps of the agricultural district will search for the target. The Fourth Guard Corps of the residential district will temporarily transfer and redeploy its guard personnel to the administrative district."
Pirberg was a radial city laid out in rings around the central fortress.
It was divided broadly into five districts, and the farther a district was from the fortress, the larger it was.
District One, the central fortress district.
District Two, the administrative district.
District Three, the commercial district.
District Four, the residential district.
District Five, the agricultural and outer rampart district.
Pirberg's five guard corps each took charge of one district, and likewise the higher a guard corps' number, the more personnel it had.
Watching the chapter master issue orders to the guard captains, I raised my hand.
"If the guard corps set out in earnest to search, won't Findel Morein catch wind of it?"
"He will notice, of course. That is what the operation intends."
"Why is that?"
"There are three main reasons."
The chapter master pointed at the outer rampart.
On the wall enclosing the vast city, a mark signifying a gate was drawn at each of the four directions, north, south, east, and west.
"The Fifth Guard Corps will seal the city's entrances and exits. First we erase the option of flight for the search target."
"At the same time the Third Guard Corps will push from the inside outward. The search target, driven into a corner, will be pushed back step by step and penned into District Four."
"District Four is the residential district. The search target cannot hide himself in private homes, so searching alleyways at most should be enough to catch him."
A city's guard corps sets out in earnest to find one man.
That amounted to saying they would control every district of the city.
Even if the search target noticed, nothing would change.
The guard corps' way of slowly grinding a man down was enough to make even mercenaries, supposed masters of this sort of work, marvel at it.
"......Whatever happens, there'll never be a day in my life when I make an enemy of nobles."
To fight a city's ruler is to fight the entire city.
While Drik shook his head, having considered the position of Findel Morein, who would be subjected to the guard corps' terrifying pressure, Kallen was writhing all over from the itch to speak.
That I, watching that scene beside them, burst out laughing was only natural.
"Edwin Marcello, captain of the Fourth Guard Corps. Rather than pulling the Fourth Guard Corps out to the administrative district, it would be more profitable to join forces with the Third Guard Corps and operate in the commercial district."
"What is your reasoning?"
"I agree with the operation of withdrawing guard personnel to funnel the search target into District Four. However, we cannot ignore the possibility that the target notices quickly and slips out before the Third Guard Corps' encirclement is complete. I therefore propose that the Fourth Guard Corps also build the encirclement together with the Third."
The council proceeded, on the whole, in a lively atmosphere.
Part of that came from the chapter master's wholehearted efforts to make such a council possible, but more decisive, it seemed, was that he had purged the existing guard captains and filled the posts with the Order's people.
If the heads of the city's forces were the Order's paladins to begin with, what reason would there be for the city's forces and the Order to be on bad terms?
Perhaps because of that, every one of the guard captains was thoroughly tense while also stealing glances at me.
One of those gazes belonged to the Third Corps' knight commander.
She oversaw the guard corps, yet here, apart from my companions, she did the least work of anyone, and she was the chief culprit making those actually running the council uncomfortable.
Even so, she showed no intention of hiding her blatant, glaring stare at me.
"The matter of the disposition of the search target following his capture shall be recorded as a matter for the Apostle to decide. With that, this operational council is concluded."
It did not take long for every person in the council chamber to file out.
The opposite of how long it had taken for the seats to fill.
Just as we too were about to rise, a voice called me back.
"Apostle. Might you have a moment?"
The owner of the voice was none other than the Third Corps' knight commander, Camilla Rosette.
I glanced at my companions and said:
"What is it?"
"It would be awkward for you if I said it here, so how about a short walk?"
"Let's do that."
Kallen went off to give the guard corps Findel's description, and Drik, having nothing in particular to do, followed me.
Camilla did not seem to mind either, so I did not stop him.
"So, I heard you had a go at it with Schneider."
So that was what the two of them had been discussing so privately.
Heavy footsteps echoed in the colonnade leading from outside the central tower to the training grounds.
"He was a decent warrior."
"Ha ha, that fellow Schneider. Apart from Saint Commander Paladin, it's hard to find him a match."
Paladin was the title granted to the high knight commander who led a detachment.
He was in charge of the First Corps, but as his affiliation was not Pirberg but the main corps of the north, his rank was close to the chapter master's.
"Come to think of it, I haven't seen the First Corps yet. Do you know when they'll come in?"
"It varies a great deal. It depends on how quickly their supplies run out."
From far off came the sounds of the Second Corps' soldiers throwing themselves into training.
The colonnade was empty apart from me, Drik, and Camilla.
Around the time the sunlight reached a little further past the shade of the roof, Camilla opened her mouth.
"Apostle, I'll speak bluntly. I'm an ill-bred bastard, you see, and I can never manage to talk in circles."
If the ill-bred bastard beside me, vacantly watching the birds, had heard that, it would have wounded him.
Within the open-air colonnade, only Camilla's voice rang out quietly.
"My faith isn't deep. Still, I always liked a good scrap."
Is doubting the heavens some feature of high office?
Like Walter, the paladin confessing her low faith did so in a level voice.
"So I joined the Order, and I climbed to the position of leading a knight corps."
"When I heard the Apostle, the one they say is top dog in a fight in the whole Order, had come here, it hit me right away. Ah, this is the god's own arrangement. Talios is granting me his grace."
"Apostle, if it wouldn't be rude, would you fight me once? I've been so jealous of Schneider I can't sleep, honestly."
Camilla was that rare thing, a woman who had been a mercenary, and she was past thirty.
Too many years for a mercenary and too few for a knight commander, no?
It meant she was seasoned enough not to die a wretched death in some foreign place, and had the actual force and command ability to lead a knight corps.
If we crossed blades.
At worst, she was unlikely to be less troublesome than Walter.
Just as I was about to answer, someone took the words from me.
It was Drik.
"Knight commander, was it? Sir knight, before that, have a bout with me."
Camilla was not the only one startled by Drik's sudden move.
"What are you thinking?"
"No, Brother, you fought the Second Corps' knight commander. If it got to the point of...... what happened at the inn, you must have been wrecked something awful, so I want to know just how strong a paladin really is."
"......That was not the result of the fight."
Before I could explain anything to Drik, Camilla abruptly burst out laughing.
"There are exactly two things I never dodge. Schneider when he's washed for once, and a brat picking a fight. Young friend, you look like a mercenary. Traveling with the Apostle, you must have had quite the life yourself."
"I've got a rock-bottom life that won't lose to anyone's, sure. My skill with a blade won't be much different either."
Between a paladin who has taken in divine power and an ordinary person, the very concept of crossing swords does not normally hold.
Unless one counts being cut in half along with the sword one is holding.
Camilla could not have been ignorant of that fact, yet she met Drik's provocation head-on.
"......Are you serious, Camilla Rosette?"
"Ah, of course I'll have to hold back. As it happens, I hear this friend is preparing for a baptism ceremony. I'll be his practice partner while I'm at it. Isn't that fine?"
"I did hear you have to receive this baptism thing to become a paladin. How does that make you a practice partner?"
The trial held for a squire paladin to be reborn as a formal paladin is simple.
It is to fight a formal paladin.
It was a barbaric method, truly in keeping with the Talios Order, but the effect was said to be surprisingly excellent.
"You fight against a baptized paladin. That's the heart of the paladin's trial."
"......At that rate isn't it impossible? It means a new paladin has to be stronger than an old paladin, without exception."
"The result doesn't matter. Nobody tells you to win. It's a trial that looks at your aptitude."
In short, it meant that the opposing paladin becomes the examiner and evaluates Drik.
If his aptitude for battle is sufficient to receive baptism, he passes. If not, he fails.
The squire knight being examined had no need to beat the paladin examining him, nor could he.
"Of course, during the trial the divine power received through baptism is suppressed. We mustn't go killing anyone by accident."
At Camilla's explanation, Drik nodded.
The paladin's trial had not changed greatly from the one I remembered fifty years ago.
"Then how is the paladin you fight decided?"
"That's up to the squire knight. You can name the superior you've disliked all along and have a round with him. You'll get pounded for it instead, mind."
The two looked ready to head straight for the drill ground the moment my permission dropped.
I weighed going to Kallen and taking the guard captains' burdensome stares on my whole body against watching the two of them spar, then nodded.
"Do as you like."
"Then if you will excuse us."
Drik and Camilla moved off at a quick pace toward the inner keep's drill ground, from which the voices of knights could be heard in the distance.
I watched them for a while, then followed after them a beat later.
Only the late afternoon sunlight, a few birds that had settled, and the clanking of plate boots filled the colonnade.