Daphne, the witch of gluttony, perished hundreds of years ago. She starved in the desert as her endless hunger had finally claimed her life. Her soul was then harvested by Echidna, the witch of greed and now her soul rests happily in Echidna's castle of dreams.
There, she wasn't hungry. Well, as long as she didn't see anything. During her time alive, she found every sight to be appetizing and anytime she saw the other witches in the castle of dreams, she couldn't help but feel a little hungry even if she was dead.
To stop her own urges, she blindfolded herself and even tied herself up in her Centipede Coffin, a mabeast she made herself. That way, she wouldn't feel tempted to eat everything in sight. Daphne hated feeling hungry. It was torture. So death was a blessing to her.
No more starvation.
…
…
…
But one day, something changed.
Daphne was blindfolded and chained inside her Centipede Coffin like she usually was. However, she was suddenly flashed with a blinding light out of the blue and caused her to get disoriented as she began flailing around.
"Kyaaa! Was that you, Dna Dna? That was a mean…" As Daphne opened her eyes, she wasn't blocked by her blindfold. Actually, it wasn't even on her. Now that she took a moment longer to feel around, she wasn't even inside her mobile box anymore. "Prank…?" The girl finished.
She looked around and found herself in what looked like a forest. Daphne looked around with her tongue hanging out of her mouth while she drooled. All of this looked so delicious.
GROWL
Her stomach even agreed as a very familiar hunger took her over. "Maybe just a bite~" The short girl mused as she lunged at the closest tree, taking a big bite out of the trunk. Her mouth widened enough to essentially snip the tree like one would do snipping weeds and the tree came tumbling down.
"Ahhhh~ Delicious!~" Daphne cheered. Her celebration was cut short as a new aroma met her nose. She sniffed it out and tracked its source like some kind of bloodhound. Drool poured out from her mouth as she saw a splattered fruit that was smashed by the fallen tree.
"You look so delicious!" The girl yelled out as she dove her face into the splattered mess. Her tongue lapped at all of its contents and didn't care in the least as she also took some grass and dirt with it.
Daphne held her cheeks and ground her legs together as she felt unexplained bliss. "So sweet!~" Her gaze darted at the treetops, finding the fruit she just ate decorating all the trees around her. "More… I need more!"
Like a starved animal, she began chomping down the trees in the area in order to devour those delicious sweet fruits. The witch mindlessly devoured every fruit she came across, leaving only fallen trees behind, sometimes, she even ate the trees themselves.
Needless to say, she made quite the noise. So loud, it caught the attention of the dangerous wildlife of this forest.
Daphne was eagerly eating the sweet fruit she had gathered so she could taste more with each bite. As she chomped away, she heard growling. What was strange about this was it didn't come from her stomach.
Looking around, there were wolf like maebeasts surrounding the unarmed girl as they were preparing to strike. The girl's golden eyes sparkled as her tongue hung out of her mouth.
"You all… look so delicious!~ My body is throbbing just looking at all of you!~" Before the maebeasts could make their attack, they all instantly froze in place.
Daphne got up on her feet as she walked closer to one of the wolves and took a good look into their eyes. "Oh," she spoke out. "You're hungry too. Ah, that's sad. You wanted to have a meal because you're starving." The witch cocked her head and gave the wolf a terrifying grin. "I'm sorry but I'm starving too and you look so tasty!"
The maebeasts tried to move. They tried to run away but their muscles were locked in place. It was as if a command was implanted in their head to stay perfectly still and they couldn't fight this order.
In one swift motion, the girl opened her mouth so wide that she was able to scoop one of the maebeasts into her mouth, then just as quickly, she swallowed them whole.
The starving witch flopped on her back and placed her hands over her stomach. "Delicious! You were indeed appetizing! Thank you for being so scrumptious!~"
The hold on the other maebeasts wavered and they all ran in the opposite direction. They all knew that whatever this girl was wasn't prey. She was a predator.
"Mmm, I wish you all luck in finding an appetizing meal!~" Daphne called out to the fleeing maebeasts. She had a good fill so she didn't need to eat anymore.
…
GROWL
"Oh…" The witch muttered sadly. "I'm hungry again…"
…
Daphne spent a long time eating everything around her in the forest. During her feast, she managed to find her blindfold and put it on fast enough before her appetite made her eat that. Sadly, she couldn't find her Centipede Coffin.
Her blindfold was helpful. It stopped her from getting hungry as fast. It even helped gather her thoughts. She was dead and knew that very well. At first, she thought it was a prank that Echidna made. But this hunger she felt was too real. Echidna couldn't make her starve inside the dream castle so she knew she was alive.
It was pretty disappointing for the witch of gluttony. She didn't want to be brought back to life. She was just going to once again starve to death eventually and dying that way was absolute torture.
If she had the willpower, Daphne would just starve herself again and die to get back to that satisfying rest of no starvation. Sadly, she didn't have that kind of willpower. Once that hunger came, she just couldn't help herself. She just had to satisfy it.
Regardless of her misfortune, a day had passed and her trail of eating guided her to a large city. She caught the scent of so many people as well as countless other delicious smells. As much as she wanted to swallow up this entire city in one gulp, she had to go slow.
If she ate everything right now, then there wouldn't be anything left for later and she'd starve again. That's right, she was going to be a slow eater today. Well, at the very least, try.
--
"Speak up, you want it?"
The black haired boy known as Subaru looked blankly at the appa guy. "Hey mister, how many times have you seen me here before?"
The appa guy looked weirdly at Subaru. "What are you talking about? I haven't seen you in my life. So do you want it or not?"
Subaru smiled and happily struck a pose. "I'm sorry but I don't have any money at all! I'm completely broke!"
"Then get the hell outta here!"
After leaving the appa guy, Subaru took a moment to himself to evaluate the situation at hand. He had all his stuff on him from before and he seemed to be back at the appa guy just like the last couple of times. He had no wounds on him and everything like everything never happened to begin with.
Guess he really did die and come back to life.
The boy let out a sigh of relief as he began to plot what to do next. He could sell his phone and use his knowledge from Japan to get some good money. However, memories of the silver haired girl came to mind as well as all the deaths that occurred at the loot house.
No, he had to help them.
After gaining his resolve, he set out with the intention to help stop the tragedy that's about to come.
--
"So delicious!~ There's so much meat on you!~ You're really satisfying my appetite!~"
Daphne had just caught her first prey in the city. She encountered a group of three thieves and one of them had the scent of so many luxurious smelling oils on them. He was fat too so this helped fill her up much more than than maebeast.
"S-She just ate him…" One of the thieves said. He backed up as he watched in horror as his friend was swallowed whole by this little girl.
They thought this girl would be easy gainings but when his friend, Ton, went to rattle her a little, she suddenly opened her mouth in an inhumane way and swallowed him whole.
"Y-You killed him…" The other thief said. He lost the strength to stand as he watched this sight in disbelief. "You killed… Y-You killed…?"
Wait, who did she eat again?
The two remaining thieves stared at the girl with a confused look on their face. Why did they feel like they lost something important to them? The two stopped sulking and got up quickly. "W-We need to get outta here!" The little thief frantically said.
"R-Right behind you!" The other thief agreed quickly as the two immediately ran in the opposite direction away from this deranged monster.
The little thief suddenly fell back as he ran into someone. "H-Hey! Watch where you're- W-Watch w-where…" He stopped as he saw that little monster from earlier suddenly standing in front of him. He didn't see her move from that spot so her being here right in front of him should be impossible.
"That touch…" She started. "Such a tender touch!~ I just want to eat you up!~"
"A-Ahh…" The little thief slowly backed up. He nearly yelped as the blindfolded girl leaned in real close.
"You smell so good… Another meal shouldn't hurt."
"N-No! S-Stay back!" The little thief continued to scoot back as Daphne inched closer and closer to the terrified boy. "C-Chin! H-Help m-"
CHOMP
It was too late. The starving girl was too fast. Just like with Ton, she swallowed up Chin's other friend without any hesitation or even difficulty. Now that Chin thought about it, did he ever have any friends? He didn't even know who that person she swallowed was. Actually, was he always here alone? Why was he trying to mug people all by himself?
Chin screamed in horror as he continued to run. His confusion didn't matter right now. What mattered was getting the hell away from this monster.
"Mmmm~ Delicious~ Maybe one more couldn't hur-" The witch suddenly stopped herself as she began sniffing. "What's that smell? That delicious heavenly odor?~"
This smell was amazing. She had never once in her life got a whiff of something so indescribably delicious. This smell felt as if it was even filling up her belly itself.
It was a very faint smell but even this small of it was amazing. She needed more. She had to get a taste of this delicious smelling treat.
--
Both Subaru and a silver haired girl he was trying to save were standing side by side. The short golden haired girl called Felt just slipped away and now the remaining people here were Subaru, the silver haired girl, and the assassin that's responsible for this whole mess, Elsa.
"Heh, looks like you let one get away." Subaru bragged.
"For once, I'm getting a tiny bit annoyed." Elsa responded.
"Hey! Don't forget about me!" The white haired girl called out as she shot out another ice lance at the assassin.
Not even looking at the attack, she easily swatted it with her blade. "I hope you have other attacks because I've grown quite tired of that one. Do you think you can be more amusing for me?"
Now that he wasn't being engaged, he turned to the silver haired girl. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to have a hidden trick you can-"
CREEK
The boy stopped what he was saying as the door opened. Subaru felt relieved at first thinking it was Felt coming back with help but instead, he saw a kid with ashen gray hair wearing black and white skin tight clothes walk on it without a care in the world.
Elsa looked over to the newcomer with a devilish grin across her face. "Oh my, we certainly have a lot of visitors."
Subaru began sweating as he knew very well this kid was in grave danger. "It's not safe here! Run away fast!"
The girl in question didn't heed the boy's words at all as she simply walked to him. Her attention was solely focused on him. The fact that she could walk to him blindfolded like she is was a miracle in itself.
"That odor…" The blindfolded girl spoke out. Without any warning, she began flailing her body wildly. "Ohhhh my body is throbbing! This is so hard to take! You give off an odor I really really love!" The girl leaned in real close to Subaru with her tongue hanging out of her mouth before continuing, "It makes me wanna eat you~"
Needless to say, both Subaru and Emilia were at a loss for words by the strange girl's actions. The only one unaffected was Elsa as she grinned at this exchange.
In a blink of an eye, the mysterious girl's back slit open and toppled in front of Subaru. With blood on her weapon, Elsa started, "I'm not in the mood to deal with any more interruptions."
Subaru finally regained his composure as he saw the strange girl fall in front of him with a wide slash across her back. He then fixed his gaze back to Elsa, glaring daggers at her. "Why did you attack her?! She had nothing to do with this!"
"I can't have any witnesses. It's bad enough that the gutter rat got away. I don't plan on making any more mistakes." She instantly rushed for Subaru but was halted as another icicle shard launched to Elsa.
Elsa squinted her eyes as she looked at the silver haired girl. "You're really starting to annoy me. I guess I'll have to get rid of you-"
GROWL
Much to everyone's surprise, the strange girl got back up. "Ugh… That made me really hungry…"
"Y-You're alright?" Subaru asked in disbelief.
Elsa on the other hand giggled. "Oh my, I didn't think you'd survive from that. You must either be special or very lucky."
The girl turned her head to Elsa. "Those scents, you have so many! Mmm, I need to fill my appetite."
Elsa's delighted look turned into disappointment. "I don't think you understand what's going on, chi-"
Before she could finish that, Elsa jumped back swiftly as the gray haired girl suddenly appeared right where Elsa used to be standing.
"Oh! You're fast just like a rabbit. But working so hard on a catch would make me more hungry…" The mystery girl grimaced at the idea of working so hard to catch a single meal.
"It looks like I've underestimated you." Elsa started. She was impressed by this girl's speed and resilience after getting her back cut open. Now taking her more seriously, she leaned down, getting ready to lunge at the girl.
With a swift strike, she struck at the girl, lodging her blade into her stomach. However, once she pierced her stomach, her blade was stuck inside her and couldn't pull it out. She quickly abandoned her blade and kept back.
Elsa smiled in delight as she saw her blade stuck into the girl's belly. "You have surprisingly tough skin. I look forward to seeing your insides."
The girl didn't respond to Elsa at all. Instead, she pulled the blade out of her stomach. In an instant, her cut over her stomach instantly healed up on its own.
"Oh? You can heal yourself?" Elsa asked. "Maybe you won't be such a bore to dance with after all-"
CHOMP.
The girl suddenly ate Elsa's blade.
Subaru and the Silver haired girl took this distraction to start healing Rom, a large guy who was injured during this time. Subaru was watching carefully at this battle and his jaw dropped as he saw the girl just eat the weapon.
"Mmmm~ There's so much flavor! Too bad it didn't fill up my appetite at all."
"Now you've gotten me curious. Who are you?" Elsa asked, her guard up.
"I am Daphne. I'm sorry but I'm very hungry right now, I'm starving! I hope you can fill my appetite~"
Right after the girl known as Daphne finished her sentence, she seemingly appeared right in front of Elsa with her mouth opened to an inhumane size and chomped down at her. The assassin barely had time to react and barely pulled herself back from the bite.
However, as Elsa pulled back, Daphne suddenly appeared in the spot she was about to land. The gray haired girl's mouth was wide open as she patiently waited for her to land in the starving girl's mouth.
Quick to react, she stabbed down into the girl's jaw to propel her into a different direction. Once the blade made contact, Daphne snapped her jaw shut.
Elsa was able to propel herself back like she had hoped but her arm was bitten off in the process. "Delicious! This is just an arm but it's already satisfying so much of my appetite!~"
Elsa held her wound as her eyes were locked on the little starving girl. She had stabbed her face with her blades but those were already pulled out and eaten along with her arms. The way she healed instantly like that reminded her a lot of a certain someone.
"Your way of dancing is very unpredictable. That's a shame." Elsa said. She didn't seem bothered at all that her arm was severed.
"Dance?" Daphne asked. "Sorry, dancing makes me too hungry. Ugh, thinking about it is already starving me!" With a big toothy grin, she leaned her head forward to Elsa. "You've made me move a lot and that made me very hungry. I'll eat you to help satisfy my appetite you helped spoil~"
Elsa's smile faded. Not because she was intimidated by those words but because something was off. Her arm wasn't coming back. Usually, she could easily regenerate her arms from being severed like this but it refused to come back this time. It was as if her body didn't recognize that she should have her arm there.
Elsa understood very well this wasn't a fight she should continue. This girl she was fighting had some kind of regeneration ability and she was able to remove her arm without her being able to regenerate it back. It enraged her to no end that some random bitch waltzed in and completely ruined her fun like this. "Daphne, I'll remember this."
With those words, she kept back and practically vanished from sight. Despite her being disarmed, she was able to move quite efficiently.
Daphne on the other hand tilted her head. "Aww… She ran away. Oh well, I won't ruin my appetite by chasing after that rabbit!" The girl patted her belly, she felt nice and full after that meal. It was just an arm but whatever Elsa was made of wasn't normal human meat. It was able to fill up her belly quite a bit.
Daphne sighed happily before laying back. She wanted to enjoy this feeling for as long as she could before her starvation came back to her. Once it did, she would eat that delicious smelling boy. Just smelling his odor felt like it was filling up her appetite.
…
Actually, her full tummy wasn't going away. Usually she'd feel the weight in her belly leave her and slowly get replaced with unimaginable hunger. But it wasn't happening.
"Um… Are you ok?"
Daphne turned to the source of the voice. Based on the smell, it was coming from that delicious smelling boy.
"You have Daphne's attention."
"Oh, I guess I wanted to thank you for scaring off the assassin." Subaru explained.
"Assassin?" The girl asked. "Oh! You mean that delicious rabbit? I can't blame her though. You smell very delicious so it's only natural she wanted to use you to fill her appetite."
Subaru blinked a few times, her words concerning him immensely. The boy remembered her odd mannerisms and as well as straight up eating Elsa's arm off so now he was starting to wonder if she was good or not.
Before Subaru could really have any second thoughts, Daphne was suddenly back on her feet and leaning in very close to Subaru like she had been when she first arrived. "I really really love your odor~ It's like your delicious smell is filling up my appetite alone!"
Subaru took a step back and audibly gulped. "Um… Please don't eat me?"
The girl gave off a toothy grin. "Eating you is very tempting but your smell is already filling me! I've never seen food fill one's appetite by smell alone so eating you would be so wasteful!"
Once again, Subaru gave the strange girl a confused look. He was lost at what she was even referring to. "So you're not going to eat me?"
To Subaru's luck, Daphne shook her head. "I'm not stupid enough to waste an infinite source of food!"
"Right, I guess my… odor… is feeding you somehow." Subaru had no idea how that even worked but as long as he wasn't this girl's target, then he wasn't going to complain. "Well my name is Natsuki Subaru. I take it that you're named Daphne?"
The girl nodded. "That is right. I am Daphne. It's a nice to meet you, Subarun~"
"I'm glad to see that everyone here is alright." Subaru looked over to see a familiar red haired knight make his way into the loot house. It was Reinhard. "I guess my assistance wasn't needed here after all."
Subaru chuckled as he scratched the back of his head. "Oh, hey Reinhard. I guess you're the help that Felt went out to get."
On cue, Felt poked her head through the door and looked around. "Wait, you dealt with that crazy bitch already?" The golden haired girl asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, this girl showed up out of nowhere and- Huh?" Looking around, he noticed that Daphne was nowhere to be seen. "Where did she go…?"
"If I may ask," Reinhard started, "Who warded off your attacker? I wish to express my gratitude to them for helping to keep innocent people safe."
"She's a short girl named Daphne. She kinda disappeared the second you showed up…"
Reinhard nodded. "I see, if you happen to see her again, I'd appreciate it if you give her my thanks."
Felt quickly rose her hand. "Yeah! Me too! I don't know who this girl is but I want to thank her for helping you guys out!"
While everyone was talking, the silver haired girl just finished healing Rom then called out, "I've stabilized him."
That instantly caught Felt's attention as she rushed over. "Rom!"
While the girls were gathered over by Rom, Subaru took a moment to assess the situation. This time around, he managed to stave off Elsa long enough with the help of the silver haired girl. He guessed that since he survived longer, that brought the girl named Daphne.
He didn't quite understand Daphne's motives other than she was hungry. One thing that was for sure is that she was definitely stronger than that assassin. Luckily the assassin attacked the little girl and caught her aggro.
At least he wasn't targeted.
--
After some time had passed, Subaru was finally able to learn the name of the silver haired girl. Her name was Emilia. She offered to bring him back to a place called the Mathers Estate and Subaru agreed. He just said to wait a day as he wanted to check on something.
As for Felt, once she tried giving back the insignia she stole to Emilia, Reinhard seemed to take some kind of offense to it glowing and essentially abducted the poor girl. He also was going to take Rom to a healer to get him fully healed. It turns out Emilia's healing doesn't do anything for internal wounds.
As for Subaru, he wanted to find that strange little girl before he went with Emilia. There was one thing he had to know from her; was she a friend or foe.
The boy let out an exhausted sigh after he separated from everyone. "Will I even be able to find her?"
"I'm not sure, Subarun. I'm getting kinda sleepy though so wake me when you find them."
Subaru looked to his side and was shocked to see that the girl he wanted to find was beside him this whole time.
"Woah, what the fu-"
(——)
Greetings readers.
I want to thank you all for taking your time to read this. I do want to apologize if certain scenes felt rushed though but I'm not a fan of rewriting content that's already established in the novel itself.
However, I'm not speaking out like this to apologize. I instead want to offer you all an inquiry.
There's something new I wanted to try out with this story. As you all probably know, there is hardly any information on Daphne except for the handful of snippets that the author has ever so generously provided to us. So I want to make a little game.
At the end of each chapter, I'll ask a Daphne related question and I'm curious to know what you all think. Depending on your answers, I'll apply that to future chapters.
Let's start with our first inquiry:
In the story, it's established that Puck, Beatrice, and Roswaal are aware of the existence of the other witches of sin. My question is if they know who Daphne is and if so, which ones would know about her?
