"This is the girl that fought off the assassin?"
Subaru nodded. "Yeah, she did the fighting and I bought her time to show up."
Right now, Subaru made it to the Mather's Estate with both Emilia and Daphne. After Daphne suddenly showed back up after the famous Felt abduction scandal, she fell asleep. Subaru would've felt bad leaving her like that so he carried her back to Emilia.
After some discussion and one carriage ride, they arrived at the manor they were currently at and they were now speaking to the lord of this place, Roswaal L. Mathers. Daphne managed to wake up before the meeting with Roswaal and to keep it simple, filling her in on the details was… difficult.
"I see…" Roswaal gave the girl a stern stare as if attempting to see through her. "I don't believe that I was informed who you are. May I have your name, Miss?"
"Hm? Me?" Daphne tilted her head and pointed at herself. It was very clear that she had no idea what was happening.
"Yes, I would very much like to know the identity of Miss Emilia's Saaaaavior~"
"I don't remember saving anyone but you are speaking to Daphne."
Roswaal perked a brow at this. "Daphne? My, you have quite an interesting name."
"How is my name interesting? Isn't it common to have a name to identify one another with?"
Roswaal waved a hand dismissively. "My apologies, I didn't mean anything by it. I simply wanted to thank the booooth~ of you for your assistance."
"I still don't remember helping anyone with anything but I'm happy to be helpful, Ros Ros."
Roswaal smiled. "Oh? Coming up with nicknames already? I'm quite flaaaattered~"
"If you ask me, I think we deserve some kind of reward since we've been such a big help!" Subaru suddenly declared.
"I wholeheartedly agree! You've both helped me immeasurably and giving the two of you a reward is the leeeeast~ I can do."
Subaru flinched. He wasn't actually expecting to get that kind of response that quickly. "Wait, really?!"
Roswaal nodded. "Of course, like I said earlier, Miss Emilia is a candidate to be Lugnica's next ruler after all. If she were to be disqualified, then that wouldn't look good on her sponsor after aaaaall~ Go on, if it's within my power, I will grant any wish you want."
"Right, in that case, why don't you go first, Daphne?" Subaru offered. After all, he wanted to get a good idea what kind of wish this girl wanted before he made his own.
"My wish?" Daphne cocked her head to the side for a moment. "I wish that world hunger was solved."
…
"That is a very ambitious wish. But I'm afraid that's something not within my power to grant." Roswaal explained.
"That's a shame. In that case, I want a million land dragons."
…
"That's… also not within my power."
…
--
Several denials later…
--
"I'm sorry but this manor is too important to me to let you… eat... I can provide you with your own manor if you desire."
Daphne shook her head. "No, it has to be this one. You know, you're really bad at granting wishes, Ros Ros. I don't need anything from you then."
Not having the willpower anymore to refute this, Roswaal nodded. He wasn't even using his accent anymore from how dumbstruck he was. "Right, I apologize that I wasn't able to grant any of your wishes..."
Turning to Subaru, the lord recomposed himself the best he could. "I hope that your wish is more… reasonable."
The boy in question snapped out of his own state of shock after being addressed. After hearing all the ridiculous and gluttonous requests that Daphne made, he knew what to ask for.
"Earlier you offered Daphne to live here and that you'd pay her for it. Is it alright if I take you up on that offer?"
Roswaal stared at Subaru with a look of disbelief. After Daphne's countless rejections to his counteroffers, he was under the impression Subaru was going to be similar. With his spirit regained, Roswaal sat up straight and clapped his hands together.
"But of coooourse~! I'll be more than happy to direct that kind of reward onto you. Starting now, you'll be our paid resident."
As pleased as the lord sounded, his words sounded like they were rushed. So much time was wasted thanks to a certain girl who mistakened Roswaal to be some kind of genie so understandably, he wanted to get the ball rolling.
Subaru pumped his fist excitedly. "Alright!"
Roswaal turned his attention back to Daphne. "What are you plaaaanning~ to do, Miss Daphne?"
Daphne instantly pointed at Subaru. "I will be with Subarun."
The girl's proclamation surprised Subaru. "Hey, you can't just stay with me. Won't your parents be worried about you?"
Daphne tilted her head. "How can the dead worry, Subarun?"
The boy froze still. Does that mean her parents are dead? He thought. Now understanding her situation a little better, Subaru continued. "Erm… How about any guardians? Maybe a family?"
Daphne cocked her head to the other side. "Family?" The girl swayed her head around while contemplating if she had one as she wasn't sure if the other witches of sin counted as one. "Hmm… I'm pretty sure I don't have that."
Subaru began to sweat nervously. So Daphne must be an orphan. "I-I guess it wouldn't hurt to look after you then. Well, assuming having another person living here is alright."
"I certainly don't mind. I'll just see her as a normal gueeeest~" Roswaal assured.
Subaru was kind of surprised how generous Roswaal was. He was sure that he was going to say something along the lines that he'll let Daphne stay as her wish. Maybe he didn't want to bring that up again considering what everyone had to go through.
Before Subaru could think too far into it, Roswaal turned to one of his two maids that were standing by his side this whole time. "Ram, please give Subaru a tour then show him one of our vacant rooms."
The maid that had pink hair bowed immediately. "Yes, Lord Roswaal." The maid referred to as Ram opened the door and gestured to Subaru. "Right this way, sir."
"Oh, thanks." Subaru got himself up and started to follow the maid. As he started to leave, he was suddenly stopped as a certain gluttonous girl tugged on his shirt.
"Subarun…" She complained. "I'm tired. Carry me."
"You're tired already?! How?!"
"Walking here was exhausting. You need to carry me."
"What are you talking about?! Walking here only took like three minutes!"
"Subaruuuuuuun!" Daphne didn't register Subaru's argument at all as she extended her hands to her infinite food source, eagerly awaiting him to carry her.
Subaru let out a sigh. Not wanting to waste anyone else's time, he gave in and carried Daphne piggyback style. The poor boy nearly tripped as the girl practically weighed a ton. He had no idea how a girl with such a small figure could weigh so much.
"W-Woah! How much do you weigh?!"
Daphne tilted her head. "My weight? Why do you want to know that?"
Subaru blinked a few times. Now that he thought about it, he was about to step into the forbidden territory of 'what to never tell a girl'. After realizing his potential mistake, he let it go. "N-Nevermind…"
The girl shrugged and got a good whiff of Subaru. "Mmmm~ So appetizing!~"
The poor boy ignored the creepy sniffing hauled the heavy girl out, struggling to follow behind Ram.
…
…
…
Roswaal was currently speechless as he was still trying to wrap his head around what he had just witnessed. If it weren't for the fact that the girl who called herself Daphne fought off the assassin, according to what he'd been told that is, he would think of her as just a naive child.
One thing was for sure though; he shouldn't lower his guard.
"Rem, I have a very important task for you."
The other maid who had blue hair perked up. "How can I be of service, Lord Roswaal?"
"I want you to observe both Natsuki Subaru and Daphne for the time being. If you find anything suspicious, report to me immediately."
"Yes, Lord Roswaal."
Rem immediately started making her way out but before she did, Roswaal spoke up once more. "Rem, I mean it. You are to report to me immediately if you find anything suspicious. Do not under any circumstances take matters into your own hands. Do I make myself clear?"
Rem nodded. "Of course, Lord Roswaal. I will report to you immediately if I see anything noteworthy."
Roswaal's serious look instantly vanished and his carefree smile returned. "That is all, you may take your leave now."
--
The tour took a lot longer than it should have. Thanks to a certain girl, getting to each spot was a huge challenge in itself. It was so bad that he had to take a little break every time they had to go up the stairs. It didn't matter anymore as they had finally made it to their last stop.
"This here will be your room. The tour has now concluded. Do you have any questions, sir?"
Subaru was still catching his breath. "Ahh… ahhh… Are there any wheelchairs here by chance…?"
Ram looked to Daphne who was currently asleep on Subaru's back then back to the boy before giving him a very dull look. "If that is all, then I will take my leave now."
"W-Wait! Where's Daphne supposed to be staying?"
"Lord Roswaal told me to give you one of our vacant rooms. He never said two."
Subaru blinked a few times before panicking. "W-Wait, You can't expect me to share the same room with her!"
Ram bowed her head. "I'm sorry, sir. I need to get back to my duties." Thus, Ram walked off, completely disregarding Subaru's question.
"H-Hey! Get back here! You can't leave me like this!"
Subaru's call fell on deaf ears once more. Ram had already left and Daphne was fast asleep. Right now, Subaru was complaining to nobody.
The boy let out an exhausted sigh. He really didn't have the energy anymore to deal with this right now. Subaru decided that he should just drop Daphne off in the room and go talk to Roswaal about this. Surely he'll be reasonable about this, right?
Once entering the room, Subaru was taken aback as he suddenly found himself inside a large library of some kind. Before he could really take in his surroundings, a new voice spoke up.
"You come in without even knocking? What a rude one you are, I suppose."
In front of him in the center of the library was a young girl who looked to be about 11 or 12 and she was sitting on a stool with her eyes locked on a book she was reading. She had blonde hair tied in drill-like twin tails and blue eyes.
"Didn't Roswaal say this was supposed to be vacant? Wait a minute, why is my room a big library anyways?!"
The girl furrowed her brow. "The only room you deserve is a broom closet."
"You can't say stuff like that to your new roommate! Besides, that cold attitude will ruin that cute face of yours. How about you smile a little?"
The blonde haired girl grew increasingly annoyed the more Subaru talked. "No one would want such an irritating and annoying man like you as a roommate, I suppose."
"You don't have to be mad. Look, I get it. You're probably on edge because I'm new here but trust me, I'm very easy to get along with. So what kind of room is this supposed to be anyways?"
"This is Betty's multipurpose room which works as a library and bedroom, I suppose."
"So it really is a library, huh?" Subaru still didn't want to live in here, especially having to share a room with two girls. Oh well, he'll just drop Daphne off and talk to Roswaal like he originally planned. "So, where am I sleeping? Do you have a spare futon lying around anywhere?"
That made the little girl snap as she finally broke eye contact with her book and glared at Subaru. "You are terrible at listening! This is Betty's room so you do not have a place here, in fact!"
"W-Woah there, I know that I'm new and all but you really don't have to act so cold. How about introductions first? I'm Natsuki Subaru, I'll be living here from now on."
She sighed. "I'll indulge you since you seem to be incapable of making reasonable deductions on your own. I am Beatrice, caretaker of the forbidden library, I suppose."
"Wait, forbidden library? Now you're making it sound like this isn't supposed to be a bedroom."
Beatrice stood up from her stool as she had finally lost her patience. "That's it, it's time to teach you a lesson."
Having a bad feeling about this, Subaru took a step back. "Y-You don't have to get mad. I still think we should try getting along-"
"Stay right there and don't you dare move."
Subaru stopped and stood perfectly still. Subaru was now pretty scared as the way Beatrice said those words sounded very serious and threatening.
Eventually, the little girl stood right in front of the boy. "Is there anything you'd like to say?"
"U-Um… Please don't hurt me?"
Without saying another word, Beatrice placed her hand over the boy's chest. At that moment, a very strong surge of pain emitted across Subaru's whole body.
"AAAAAGGHHH!!!" He yelled.
This didn't even last for a full second as a powerful force suddenly pushed both Subaru and Beatrice away from each other.
Subaru was pushed against the door and dropped down to his knees. He placed his hand over his chest and started breathing heavily. After whatever that girl did, he felt like he nearly ran himself to death. It was so bad that he wasn't even able to stand.
Beatrice on the other hand was flown back to where her stool was and she barely caught herself from falling on her butt. "You have a lot of nerve to-"
Beatrice stopped herself as she realized that the girl Subaru was carrying was now standing from where she was launched. She nearly forgot about her existence thanks to how annoying the boy was being.
"Nerve? Oh, you're probably mad that I stopped you from having a meal. Shouldn't you finish your tea first? After all, it's a sin to waste perfectly good food."
"What are you babbling on about? Never mind, this doesn't have anything to do with you, in fact! Stay out of this or Betty will be forced to blow you away!"
"But this does have something to do with me. You tried to steal my Subarun, didn't you? I know how tasty my Subarun is but I'm afraid he's already mine."
"You must be delusional if you think that boy is worth stealing. My patience is running out, just take that foolish idiot and leave before Betty teaches you a lesson as well, I suppose."
"I'm sorry but you're risking my Subarun's existence." In a blink of an eye, the girl appeared right in front of Beatrice. Daphne's face was just centimeters away from the other's. She slowly licked her lips and saliva dripped down her face. "I guess I'll just have to eat you up~"
Beatrice knew now that this strange girl was a threat. Without missing a beat, she jumped back a few feet from the girl and raised her hand out to them. "Minya!"
A purple crystal formed from Beatrice's hand and it shot directly into Daphne. Despite her speed, Daphne made no attempt to dodge the attack as the crystal dug into the center of her stomach. Daphne looked down, seemingly staring at the crystal. It was hard to tell with her blindfold on.
At this point, Beatrice thought that this girl was just trying to be intimidating earlier. She was actually feeling bad that she ended up resorting to actually attacking them. "You really are a fool for threatening-"
Daphne suddenly appeared in front of Beatrice with her mouth open wide. Beatrice in the nick of time managed to use wind magic to push the girl away before she could chomp her. A loud snap was heard as Daphne bit down hard in the air.
After the bite, Daphne looked at Beatrice with a big toothy grin. "A spirit that can use more than one element of magic? My mouth is watering! You could really fill my appetite!~"
Beatrice was a little surprised that this girl managed to identify her as a spirit. However, she didn't lower her guard. "Betty underestimated you, I suppose."
Taking a closer look, the minya crystal that hit into Daphne's stomach was no longer there. Actually, it looked as if she was never struck at all. At this point, Beatrice knew she had to take this seriously. However, she was still in the library and she couldn't risk causing any damages. The best thing she could do right now was to end this quickly.
Beatrice lifted her hand to Daphne, getting ready to cast a spell to finish this. However, just as she was about to, her target launched a blade of wind out from her hand which caused Beatrice to immediately change her stance to evade the attack.
"All this moving is making me so hungry!" Daphne complained out of the blue.
Beatrice barely avoided the blade of wind and across the floor was a large slash. If that hit her, she definitely would've been cut in half. It was clear that this opponent of hers can use magic, though her capability with it was still unknown. This was getting much more complicated.
Daphne hugged herself and flailed her body around. "My body is throbbing at the thought of how appetizing you'll be! This is so hard to take! All of this is making me want to taste you with my other mouth!~" After her words, Daphne took off her blindfold and locked eyes with her prey.
Daphne had golden colored eyes. However, these eyes looked very strange in shape. One of her eye's iris was shaped like a closed mouth while the other closely resembled an open mouth.
Beatrice widened her eyes and watched the girl in both horror and disbelief. Something just clicked in her head after hearing what Daphne had said as well as witnessing this display before her. "N-No, it can't be."
The frightened spirit's gaze was lost in those hungry golden eyes. This shouldn't be happening. This had to be some kind of trick. "W-What is your name?" She finally managed to ask. This will really tell her for sure if this is who she thinks it is.
"I never introduced myself? Oh, I'm sorry. I was so excited that I forgot. You are speaking to Daphne."
Daphne? The witch of gluttony? "H-How? You're supposed to be dead, I suppose!" This was bad. This was really bad. Beatrice was so shocked by this revelation that she hadn't even noticed that her mana was being sapped from her.
"You're really filling my appetite!~ It's been so long since I've had such a fulfilling meal!~"
Beatrice finally snapped out of it. Daphne's eye was eating away at her vitality. If this went on any longer, she would be devoured. "Ul Shamak!"
The entire room was suddenly obscured in a thick black darkness. As long as Beatrice could break eye contact with the witch, she should be safe. Now that she thought about it, is this even a winning battle? If this really was the witch of gluttony, what could she really do?
"That was a really mean trick."
The darkness swirled around and was pulled into one spot. In a matter of seconds, it seemed to condense down into what looked like a small black ball the size of a pea. Daphne who was now holding the black ball ate it without a second thought.
Beatrice didn't have time to question this. The witch's eyes locked back on her and she had to act fast before any more of her mana was stolen from her. "Al Sha-"
The spirit was cut off as Daphne appeared in front of her and slammed her across the room. "Dealing with any more of that would make me very hungry. I don't want to ruin my appetite after all."
The spirit slammed into one of the bookshelves and landed on her back as books piled on top of her. After pushing the books away, her breath was nearly taken out of her as a heavy force nearly squashed her.
It took Beatrice a moment for her to realize that Daphne was sitting on top of her, staring down at her with those hungry eyes of hers. At this point, too much mana had been drained from the spirit and all she could do was struggle. "G-Get off!"
Daphne didn't listen as her saliva began to drip off her lips and splash on Beatrice's face. "I've never worked this hard for a meal before. My stomach is yearning for this fulfilling meal! It's time to dig in!~"
Daphne opened her mouth wide and brought Beatrice closer and closer. There was nothing the poor spirit could do now and knew this was the end. Accepting her fate, Beatrice closed her eyes and awaited for this to finally end.
"Stop it Daphne!"
The witch immediately stopped as a pair of arms wrapped around her waist, trying to pull her back. Not wanting to accidentally eat a certain someone, Daphne closed her eyes and turned in their direction.
"What's wrong, Subarun?"
Subaru was lying on the ground. He used all his remaining strength he had to get this far. "Y-You're taking this way too far."
"Too far? How is this too far?"
"What do you mean?! It looks like you're about to kill the poor kid!"
Daphne tilted her head. "But I am. I was just about to eat them."
Subaru widened his eyes. Was this girl serious? "What is wrong with you?! S-She didn't do anything wrong!"
"You are right. She didn't do anything wrong. It's only natural for others to eat when they're hungry. However, if one goes around eating people, shouldn't they expect to get eaten in return?"
"What are you talking about?! No one was trying to eat anyone here!"
Daphne pointed to the poor exhausted Spirit that she was still sitting on top of. "She was trying to eat you. It would be so wasteful to have you get eaten like that so I've decided to eat the threat to my Subarun."
Subaru was at a loss of words. Yeah, whatever Beatrice did sucked and all but there was no way that was considered eating. He was convinced that she probably did that because she felt threatened about having a new roommate. "She wasn't trying to eat me! Why would you jump to that conclusion?!"
"She wasn't?" Daphne faced Beatrice for a moment then back to Subaru. Miraculously, the witch actually bought it. "Ohh… Why didn't you say anything?"
"I was! I was yelling as loud as I could but you weren't listening!"
"Really?" Just like that, Daphne got herself off of Beatrice and casually put her blindfold back on. "Sorry, I thought she was trying to eat you."
Subaru let out a sigh of relief before the rest of his body slumped on the floor. Now that he was able to stop this very pointless fight, he instantly passed out. A lot of his energy was taken from him after all.
"Subarun? Did you die?" Daphne knelt down and began to sniff the unconscious boy's body. "Oh, you're fine."
Daphne walked over to Beatrice who was still lying on the ground herself. The spirit was still left in a state of shock, not knowing at all how to proceed with all this information. It was only until she saw Daphne's face looking down at her she finally snapped out of her thoughts.
"Would you not prank Subarun like that again?"
Beatrice looked at Daphne for a moment before speaking up. "You… Are you really the witch of gluttony…?"
The witch looked curiously at the exhausted spirit before giving her answer. "That is right." Before she could respond, Daphne leaned herself uncomfortably close to the vulnerable spirit. "Would you not prank Subarun like that again? It would make me very mad if you wasted my cure from starvation."
Beatrice weakly nodded, not like she had much of a choice in the matter anyways. "F-Fine, I suppose…"
Despite how forced that sounded, Daphne smiled happily. "That's good! That makes me happy!~" The witch walked back to her unconscious food source and started to haul him away. She didn't want Subaru to starve himself to death so she took it upon herself to pull him to the closest source of food she could find.
…
…
…
After a while, Beatrice finally regained some of her composure and managed to get back on her feet. She felt weak from having an overwhelming amount of mana get eaten from her. Luckily, it wasn't anything lethal.
The library was a mess after that little fight but Beatrice could get over it as none of the books were damaged, much to her surprise. Normally, she'd take this time to rearrange the mess but with how dangerously low her reserves are currently, she had no choice but to put it off for now.
Despite all of that, Beatrice couldn't exactly say she was mad over this. Yes, it was very irritating but with Daphne being alive, the little girl couldn't help but feel relieved.
The spirit walked over to her stool and hidden away she pulled out a black book. "Mother…" Beatrice wrapped her arms around the book tightly. With Daphne being alive, then perhaps she too was out there somewhere.
(——)
Greetings once more, reader.
Before I begin this chapter's inquiry, there is one thing I would like to address. I've had a reasonable number of people across the sites I post on saying that Daphne eats people with her eyes.
I have one issue with that claim: There's no existing source that supports this. I've even asked people if they could cite their sources. Not to be mean or anything but I was genuinely excited to get another source to reference off of to make these stories more accurate as can be. Instead, they usually lead me to the Daphne Q and sometimes the wiki.
Look, just because she can make mabeasts from her eye doesn't mean she can only eat through her eyes as well. Besides, my thought was this; why can't she do both? I'm pretty sure Daphne is the type of girl who wouldn't care which mouth she devours her food with.
…
…
…
Regardless, onwards to the inquiry:
In terms of strength, Daphne is ranked the 4th strongest amongst the 7 original witches of sin. (Or at least I think they're the original) It is also stated that her strength is equal to all three of the current sin archbishops of gluttony combined.
So here's the question;
Besides Regulus, which sin archbishops do you consider to be stronger than Daphne if at all?