When I Maxed Out the Zero-Star Saintess, a Yandere Confinement Life with Overwhelming Love Began - Chapter 19

Chapter 19

“…So? What is the meaning of this, Lyle-sama?”

In the half-destroyed living room of the grand cathedral, Celesfia’s smile was colder than the Siberian permafrost.

I was forced to sit upright on the sofa, surrounded by the strongest saintess in humanity, the maid, the sniper, and the dark knight.

“N-No, I mean! I really don’t know her! Well, I do know her, but not in that way!”

“You’re stalling badly. Did you or did you not give that pink rare beast a ‘marriage registration’? Which is it?”

Sizzle sharpened her knife while her voice carried a threatening edge. I desperately tried to explain.

“That was just a point card! She only came to the shop once!”

“…Yes?”

The four of them stopped moving. I pulled together the threads of my memory and began telling them about that day—the first and last time I met Mimir.

◆

It happened about half a year ago.

Before Sizzle destroyed the used bookstore, while I was sleeping in as usual, the door slid open with a loud rattle!

“E-Excuse meeee! Please let me take shelter from the rain!”

The one who burst in was a soaking wet pink-haired girl. She had apparently been caught in a sudden downpour. I thought it was a hassle, but I tossed her a towel anyway.

“…Don’t get the merchandise wet.”

“Ah, thank you—”

When our eyes met, she froze on the spot. She blinked repeatedly and stared at me.

“Wh-What?”

“Ah… N-No! It’s nothing!”

The girl who would later call herself Mimir wiped her bright red face with the towel. Then her eyes sparkled as she looked at the bookshelves in the store.

“Wow! This is the ‘Complete Guide to Using Hammers as Blunt Weapons’ I’ve been looking for! Oh, and over here is ‘How to Build Muscles That Get Loved’! ‘The Ultimate Defense Techniques’ too! Amazing…”

She gathered up one eccentric tactics book and romance guide after another, piling them up on the counter like a mountain. Exactly twenty books in total.

“I’ll take all of these!”

“All… All of them… Thank you for your purchase.”

I finished the transaction and took out the point card from next to the register. Normally it was one stamp per book.

It was a discount coupon for next time. But a customer buying twenty books at once was a first, and more than anything, stamping twenty times sounded like too much work.

So I pressed my thumb into the ink pad and smacked a big red thumbprint across the whole card before handing it over.

“Here, this is a bonus. I’ll count it as completely filled.”

“…Eh?”

“Show that next time you come, and I’ll give you a service.”

I just wanted to get back to sleep soon, so I waved her off casually.

“…Next? …We can meet again?”

Mimir hugged the “thumbprint card” to her chest with a bright red face. And as she left, she said one thing.

“Well… As long as the store is open.”

“…When I’m ready, I’ll definitely come as your bride!”

Come to read…? Well, in context it probably meant reading books.

I brushed it off with “Yeah, yeah, come again.”

◆

“…And that’s what happened.”

I finished telling the story and let out a deep sigh.

“It was just a ‘next time discount,’ you know? Who interprets ‘next’ as ‘future’ and ‘service’ as ‘married life’!?”

“…I see.”

Sizzle held her head. Celesfia seemed to lose her venom and sipped her black tea with an exasperated face.

“Taking a single careless customer service act as a proposal… That delusional power, or rather that oblivious power…”

“…Hm. Overly self-conscious ghost.”

Aira muttered quietly. The misunderstanding was cleared. But the problem was not solved.

“Lyle-kuuun♡ I finished cleaning our new home~!”

Booom!!!

The wall separating the next room shattered, and Mimir jumped in amid the rubble. She wore an apron and had a huge smile on her face.

Celesfia’s temples twitched as she muttered “An important cultural property…” and desperately held back her anger. She looked ready to explode any moment.

“Walls just get in the way of good conversation, so I got rid of it! Now we can always be together!”

“Don’t physically destroy my privacy!”

“Eh? Hiding your embarrassment? You’re so cute♡”

Mimir treated my retort as “words of love” and slammed the floor with a huge hammer.

“Now, the first step in bride training! I made lunch!”

What she held out was a mysterious gooey substance melted inside a pot. It bubbled purple foam, and scraps of unmelted iron were visible at the bottom.

“I call it ‘Soup of Love’!”

“It looks awfully rich in iron—Ugh… My eyes! My eyes!”

Sizzle peeked in briefly, then clutched her face and backed away as if stung.

“Th-There’s no poison in it, right?”

“I put plenty of my love and mandragora as a secret ingredient!”

“…Mandragora!?”

“Yes! Their screams are energizing, so I thought it would energize you too, Lyle!”

“That’s poison!?”

As my face paled, Mimir held out a spoon with “Ahhn♡.” If I refused, she would probably force it into my mouth.

I’m going to die. This time for sure.

I had dodged all kinds of attacks from the four of them until now, but this was impossible.

At that moment, a black hand reached in smoothly from the side.

“…Tasting for poison is my duty. Leave it to me.”

It was Vermilia. With grim determination, she snatched the spoon and gulped down the purple liquid in one go.

“Guh…!? Gah…!”

Vermilia’s face changed from blue to purple, then to ashen. But she stood firm on trembling legs and gave a thumbs up. As expected of a dragonkin. Her magic resistance far surpassed a human’s.

“…N-No… problem… Just… my tongue is numb… and I’m seeing hallucinations… but it tastes… like love…”

“Vermiliaaa!!!”

The loyal dog rolled her eyes back and collapsed. A fierce poison that knocked out an SSS-tier dragonkin. And she served it as “home cooking” with a smile.

…This girl is a monster.

“Huh? That’s weird. Did the knight collapse from hunger?”

Mimir tilted her head and looked at me without a hint of remorse.

“Oh well! After lunch… let’s test the bed’s durability! It would be bad if it broke on our wedding night!”

“Hah!?”

She grabbed my collar and lifted me easily.

“Wait! Listen to me! We’ve only met once, right!? Why are we suddenly jumping to the wedding night!?”

“Yes! It was our ‘one meeting of fate’! Time doesn’t matter—it’s all about density!”

We were not on the same wavelength. Her positive eyes reflected none of my rejection.

“Come on, let’s go? To the bed where we’ll make love—Kyaa!?”

Suddenly, the floor under Mimir’s feet turned pitch black, and she fell through. It was probably a pitfall trap Sizzle had activated at some point.

“Wow~ An invitation to the basement!? Let’s explore!”

Her cheerful voice and the sound of landing echoed from the abyss below. We looked at each other.

“…Lyle-sama.”

“What is it, Sizzle?”

“If we leave her alone, the grand cathedral will become a vacant lot. We can’t even defeat her—attacks don’t work on her. She’s invincible.”

Sizzle looked at the collapsed Vermilia and spoke with a serious face.

“…Let’s change our approach. Instead of eliminating her, we’ll tame her. Use her ‘love.’ For now, I’ve confined her in my ‘shadow,’ but I don’t know how long it will hold…”

“You’re handling it as usual… This time, I’ll leave it to you, Sizzle…”

“Yes. Leave it to me.”

Sizzle bowed politely and briskly began preparing a strategy meeting against Mimir.