When I Maxed Out the Zero-Star Saintess, a Yandere Confinement Life with Overwhelming Love Began - Chapter 15

Chapter 15

The moment Celesfia’s clenched fist began to glow with holy light, I desperately shouted.

“Wait, Celesfia! First, take a good look at her neck!”

I stepped in front of Vermilia and showed Celesfia the neck of the girl who was trembling stiffly with fear.

“…Hm?”

Celesfia stopped moving completely. The charged light dispersed like mist. She narrowed her eyes and stared intently at the “dark red bruise” on Vermilia’s neck.

“…Sizzle. This is not a kiss mark. It looks like she was struck with something blunt. It’s a rough trace.”

The bloodshot red in the saintess’s eyes that had filled the room gradually returned to their normal color.

“I apologize. …There are simply too many pests obsessed with Lyle-sama, so I jumped to the conclusion that she was in a ‘deep relationship’.”

“Exactly. There’s no way Lyle-sama would develop a taste for little girls, right?”

Celesfia smiled brightly. I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead and let out a small breath.

Honestly, Vermilia was the kind of character that hit my fetish dead-on, so she had narrowly escaped death…

But the problem wasn’t solved yet. I couldn’t move, still holding Vermilia’s trembling hand. The merciless string “Playable:FALSE” was burned into my mind and wouldn’t go away.

The current patch version of this world was “Ver.7.8”. The Vermilia in front of me existed in this patch version, but she was just one of the NPCs.

She would be implemented as a playable character starting with the major update “Ver.8.1”. And once implemented, she would become a Tier list SSS-rank, reroll-recommended cheat character.

“…Um.”

As if she couldn’t bear the silence any longer, Vermilia raised her face.

“…Do I really not have the qualifications after all?”

Her eyes wavered with anxiety. I couldn’t say anything and could only look down.

Even holding her hand didn’t trigger a connection, and I couldn’t see anything like a system log. It was complete non-response.

That was proof she was being treated as nothing more than background mob.

“…I’m sorry.”

I forced the words out.

“I can’t grant your wish.”

“…Why…?”

Vermilia remained on her knees, looking up at me with tears in her eyes.

“Is it because I don’t have enough magic power? Because I’m a demon? Or… because I have no value in living?”

“No, that’s not it. It’s not like that… It’s hard to explain…”

I hurriedly denied it. But the real reason—”Because you’re a character who hasn’t been implemented yet”—I could never say, no matter what. Even if I did, she’d just think I was crazy.

“…There are circumstances. With my power right now, no matter how I struggle… I’m really sorry.”

I clenched my fist and bowed my head. Vermilia stared blankly for a while, but eventually let out a dry laugh.

“…Aha.”

The light rapidly faded from her eyes. The desperate pleading expression from earlier vanished, replaced by a spreading, bottomless swamp-like murky darkness.

“I see… So that’s how it is after all.”

She slowly stood up. Her movements were stiff, like a puppet with its strings cut.

“I’m the failure of my clan… My horns are small, and I have no magic power. So I swung my sword desperately. I got up earlier than anyone and practiced swings later than anyone… My hands blistered over and over, covered in blood. My body is small, but I learned to swing a sword bigger than anyone… But…”

She looked at her own tattered hands.

“Even so, I couldn’t beat the talented ones in my generation, and they laughed at me as a disgrace… I couldn’t even feed my little brothers and sisters until they were full.”

“Vermilia…”

“My last hope, the miracle I clung to, has abandoned me too… Oh, I get it. In the end, effort was pointless. Innate talent is everything. That’s what it means…”

Her monologue wasn’t directed at anyone. It was curse-like words trampling her own soul.

“…I caused a disturbance, saintess, Lyle-sama.”

Vermilia bowed deeply.

“It was a presumptuous wish… Trash should act like trash and return to the dump.”

“W… Wait!”

I called out to stop her. There had to be some way. If I could just wait until the patch version where she becomes a playable character, maybe…

“At least stay here tonight! I’ll prepare food, and I’ll listen to whatever you have to say! There must be other ways I can help!”

The moment my hand reached for her shoulder.

Zap! A rejection like static electricity ran through, and my hand was repelled. Vermilia looked at me with eyes that had gone completely cold.

“…There’s nothing that can save me except ‘power’. Excuse me.”

She turned her back and walked toward the exit of the grand cathedral. On her back, she carried a rusted greatsword too big for her frame, and a despair even heavier than that.

“…Lyle-sama.”

Sizzle, who was beside me, spoke quietly.

“Shall I go after her? I could bring her back by force right now if you want.”

“…Bring her back, and then what?”

I couldn’t move, still staring at Vermilia’s back.

“What she wants isn’t ‘pity’. It’s ‘strength’, right? Anything I say when I can’t give her that would just be cruel.”

“…Lyle-sama.”

Celesfia also gripped my sleeve worriedly, biting her lip without a word.

“…Ah!”

Suddenly, from the corner of my memory, I recalled the version “7.9” right before Vermilia’s implementation.

And the boss character in the endgame demon god subjugation was Vermilia, super-strengthened with a fallen-to-darkness setting.

In other words… Soon, she would come attacking as the “demon god”. And unless I defeated her, I probably couldn’t reach the world of “8.1”.

Though that hypothesis flashed through my mind, all I could do was watch the back of the future strongest enemy disappear into the starting rain.

If this were just a game, it would end with “Couldn’t clear this boss~” but here, it doesn’t work that way. This is another reality, one that comes with pain.

“Lyle-sama? What’s wrong?”

“Celesfia, let’s find a way to break through the level cap as soon as possible. That might be the shortcut to saving Vermilia.”

“Yes…♡ An eager Lyle-sama is wonderful too…♡”

I said it with a serious face, but Celesfia didn’t seem to grasp the meaning and pressed her breasts against me while clinging to my arm.