When I Maxed Out the Zero-Star Saintess, a Yandere Confinement Life with Overwhelming Love Began - Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Occasionally I’m allowed a supervised walk inside the cathedral grounds. Today everyone else was busy, and even Aira fell asleep right after lunch, so I was strolling through the corridors escorted by a maid whose name I didn’t know. From the window of a connecting gallery I could see the main gate.

The front of the gate was a chaotic sea of people. Cathedral staff had formed a living wall to hold them back.

“Please! Let me meet the saintess! I’ll pay anything!”

“I’m a knight of the kingdom! Let me through!”

Adventurers, nobles, merchants—every sort of person who had heard the rumor that the “saintess’s miracle” could break level caps had swarmed the gate. Their eyes were bloodshot with greed and impatience.

Standing alone in front of that near-riot was a single shadow: head maid Sizzle.

“…Silence.”

Her cool voice rang out, and the noisy crowd instantly fell quiet. The shadows at her feet writhed unnaturally, forming countless blade-like shapes that hissed in warning.

“Saintess Celesfia is currently in the middle of an extremely important ritual. Audiences are not being granted.”

“That’s too cruel!”

“Isn’t there any condition? Just name it!”

One man shouted. Sizzle swept her cold gaze over the mob and lifted the corner of her mouth in a wicked little smirk.

“A condition… Very well.”

She raised one finger.

“From this moment, only those who bear a mark on an ‘erogenous zone’ will be permitted an audience.”

“…Huh?”

The crowd stared blankly. Without changing expression, Sizzle lifted her skirt and showed them the named-character proof mark on her inner thigh.

“A mark like this. Anyone with one in a provocative location, step forward. A suitable person will verify it.”

“What the hell kind of rule is that!?”

“Are you mocking us!?”

Perfectly natural reactions. They had no way of knowing that such marks proved someone was a named character and tied to the upgrade conditions. Sizzle probably only understood it as “chosen ones with marks.”

Still, it was an efficient way to filter the huge crowd.

“…Um.”

A trembling voice rose from the throng.

“…Let me through, please.”

Pushing through the masses came a small figure in a tattered, deep-hooded cloak. Poorly dressed, patched leather armor filthy with use. On her back she carried a rusty greatsword almost taller than herself.

“If you’re a beggar, line up for the soup kitchen.”

Sizzle tried to brush her off coldly, but the girl didn’t back down.

“I’m not a beggar! …I don’t have time. I absolutely need… power granted to me…!”

She stepped forward desperately. The wind caught her hood and blew it off.

Revealed was a girl with jet-black short bob hair and strong-willed crimson eyes. Sizzle’s gaze locked onto the girl’s neck.

“…!?”

Sizzle’s face froze. On the girl’s slender white throat was a vivid, dark reddish-purple bruise. Even from a distance it looked raw—as though something had pressed or sucked with terrible force.

“I will verify. This way.”

Sizzle grabbed the girl’s hand and headed toward the cathedral.

“…There goes my walk…”

I recognized the girl’s appearance and turned on my heel to hurry back to my room.

◆

Several tens of minutes later. I was waiting in my room when Sizzle knocked and entered.

“Lyle-san. A guest.”

Her usual perfect poker face had cracked; her eyes weren’t smiling. Behind her, the girl from earlier entered timidly.

“…Uh… who are you?”

When I asked, the girl dropped to her knees with explosive force and pressed her forehead to the floor in a perfect jumping dogeza.

“First time meeting you lay eyes on me! I’m Vermilia, Third Corps of the Demon King’s Army!”

“Demon King’s Army!?”

I mean, I already knew, but I acted surprised anyway. Vermilia was the cheat character who had forced the tier list to add an SSS rank above the previous SS ceiling—she obsolete every character that came before her.

At equal level, even Celesfia or Sizzle would struggle to stop her.

“…No need for the poor acting, Lyle-sama. To think you laid hands on such a frail demon girl… When on earth did this happen…”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb… Look closely at her neck.”

Urged by Sizzle, I looked at Vermilia’s face. When she raised her head, the raw reddish-black mark on her throat was clearly visible.

“A mark, yeah.”

“Exactly. I didn’t want things to get complicated if Lady Celesfia saw, so I did the minimum verification myself and brought her here. Now—which of you gave her that mark?”

“Which of us… Wait, what?”

“Let me be direct. Isn’t that a kiss mark you put on her, Lyle-san?”

“Nope.”

When I calmly denied it, Sizzle looked slightly shaken.

“I-is that so? But then…”

“Well, we’ll know once we hold hands.”

“Right… Vermilia, rejoice. The level-cap liberation ritual will now commence.”

“Hyah! Y-yes ma’am!”

Vermilia’s body jolted.

I crouched in front of her and took her hand.

I sucked in a breath—not because of the bruise. A certain line in the status window floating above her head gave me a violent sense of wrongness.

『Contact Confirmed (ContactVerified)』

『Target: Vermilia (PlayableCharacterID:800)』

『Race: Dragonkin』

『ID: Boss_Character_004 (Pre-Awakening)』

『Playable: FALSE』

(…‘FALSE’? She’s flagged as non-playable?)

What the hell is this…

“Hm… No reaction. So it really is just a kiss mark…?”

At that instant every Saintess’s Eye in the room turned bloodshot and glared at me.

“Sizzle! Celesfia can hear you!”

“Whoops… But what does this mean…? I was joking about the kiss mark; I was told it’s a birthmark…”

“Hang on… I’ve got it!”

A hypothesis hit me.

This world probably has the same “patch version” concept as the original game.

Celesfia and Sizzle being playable means we’re at least at the equivalent of Ver.7.8.

But Vermilia—the “Black Dragon Knight”—only becomes playable as a gacha unit after her fall-to-darkness arc and subsequent redemption event, starting in Ver.8.1.

In other words, she’s a major event headliner character, implemented with cheat-level stats purely to make money.

Right now, in this world, she isn’t an ally character yet—she’s just an NPC scheduled to be treated as an enemy later.

She’s not flagged non-playable, so no upgrades can trigger. That’s the perfectly logical reason.

“Lyle-san, did you figure something—”

“Demons now!? Another woman shows up one after another!”

A scream loud enough to silence Sizzle echoed from the hallway. Space warped, and the door burst open with explosive force.

There stood Celesfia, pure-white vestments glowing with golden aura, eyes glittering with holy murderous intent.