"No, that isn't right at all." Subaru explained. "If they really don't exist then how do you explain the mansion getting cleaned? Or how about the meals that everyone eats? You can't say they just come out of thin air."

"Betty has no need for the rest of the mansion besides the forbidden library. It's possible that Bubby is responsible for upholding the mansion and its cleanliness, I suppose."

Subaru sighed. "It really isn't healthy to lock yourself inside here all day, especially if you're just going to forget about everyone who lives here. Why don't we go out together after I talk to Daphne? I think it'll be a great first step for you to open up to others."

"You have some nerve if you think you can start telling me what to do, boy. It doesn't change the fact that these made up inhabitants you conjured up in your head do not exist, in fact."

"Ugh… You're such a persistent kid, aren't you? Alright, fine. I'll just start with seeing Daphne and go from there. Does that sound good to you?"

"Do not call me a child! Betty is centuries older than you, in fact!"

"Centuries? Don't tell me you're actually a loli granny…"

"Grrr…! Didn't you say you were leaving to see the Witch of Gluttony or does Betty have to blow you away, I suppose?!"

Subaru lifted his hands up as he backed away slowly to the door, not wanting to cause another scene with Beatrice. "I'm going, no need to be so harsh."

Beatrice crossed her arms and poutily looked away. "I honestly have no idea why the Witch of Gluttony has taken such a liking to an idiot like you."

"Wait, I already told you that she-"

SLAM!!!

Once Subaru made it out of the room, the door practically slammed in his face. Seeing how the interaction was now over, the boy slumped over and sighed heavily. "Well, at least I apologized…"

After gathering his thoughts, he started heading back to his room. He decided that he'd figure out the whole wheelchair situation later now that he finally came in contact with Beatrice.

Now that he thought about it, what exactly was he going to say to Daphne? Despite Beatrice's words, he still doubted that Daphne was this ancient evil witch or whatever she was going on about. He'll probably just tell her that she mistook her for someone else.

While Subaru was making his way back, he walked past the kitchen and noticed something strange. It looked like someone was in the middle of cooking something and just left it unattended. Sure enough, the food would surely get spoiled being left out like this.

He immediately remembered Ram's harsh words from earlier and thought he'd help contribute around here by at least cleaning up and preserving some of the food. That way, no one would have a reason to call him a freeloader anymore.

Or at least he would like to think that. He didn't know where to put all of this or even what he should do with these abandoned ingredients. He was still new here and he spent most of his time looking after Daphne so he didn't know where anything was supposed to go.

"Ugh… Just how useless am I…?" He complained to himself.

In the end, he didn't do anything about the mess. He had his doubts if cleaning this up was even a good idea. For all he knew, there was a reason this was left out and he'd only be getting in the way if he changed anything. With a defeated sigh, Subaru turned around and started making his way out of the kitchen.

"Subarun!~"

Subaru was immediately knocked back as a flash of black and purple launched at him the second he turned around. It took a second for the boy to realize that Daphne had appeared and was now clinging onto him while sniffing him like her life depended on it.

"Mmmm~ Appetizing~"

After bearing through these past few days of this, he didn't find Daphne's bizarre behavior all too surprising anymore. However, he still couldn't help but feel a little flustered by it regardless. "D-Daphne?! When did you get here?!"

"I just got here. I was so hungry that it felt like I was gonna die!"

Subaru calmed down a little before continuing, "Yeah, my bad. Sorry for not letting you know."

Daphne got on her tippy toes and began to pat

Subaru's head. "It's ok, Subarun. You're helping my appetite right now after all."

Subaru flinched once his head was suddenly patted. He still wasn't used to being on the receiving end of this. But he ended up placing his own hand over Daphne's head and ruffled her hair a bit as payback. The gluttonous girl of course didn't seem to mind one bit. "By the way, have you seen Rem or Ram anywhere? They left all this out and I'm starting to worry about them."

Daphne tilted her head, giving Subaru a curious look. "You mean the onis? I'm surprised you still remember them."

"Ugh… Not you too… Beatrice was also saying she had no idea who they were…"

"Oh? You found that spirit?"

"Yeah, that's right. I did find Beatrice. She wanted me to ask you a bunch of weird questions though."

"I'm confused, why can't she ask me herself?"

"In her defense, you did traumatize that poor girl. Now she's too scared to see you in person!"

"What is there to be scared of? I already promised you that I wouldn't try eating her again."

Subaru facepalmed. "You can't just pretend what you did was nothing big. You need to really make up with them if you want Beatrice to not be scared of you. Especially since you literally tried to kill her!!!"

"Ah, I see… How about we offer her a whale? That would definitely make anyone happy and it would even fill their appetite for weeks!"

"I don't know if Beatrice is the type of person who would like a whale offered to them. Actually, how would you even get that…? Never mind, the first step for any kind of make ups are apologies. We're going to go to Beatrice together and you're going to apologize to her."

"I still think that spirit should be the one apologizing to you but if it's what Subarun wants, then I'll say sorry to the spirit."

"That's another thing too! You keep calling her a spirit. She has a name and it's Beatrice."

Daphne cocked her head to the side. "Hmm… You're defending that spirit quite a bit." Just then, Daphne looked like she was struck with a sudden epiphany. "Oh! Are you in love with her?"

"Eh?" Subaru blinked a few times before his whole face reddened and began to frantically wave his hands as well as shaking his head. "N-No! You got it all wrong! I'm just trying to be friendly with everyone here! It has nothing to do with romance or anything! Besides, I can't fall in love with a kid! She'd have to be a decade older before even considering that!"

"Is that so?" Daphne nodded understanding. "I think I got it now! You just want to be friends with Bea Bea."

Subaru nodded quite desperately. "Y-Yeah! That's right! Just friends! Nothing more!"

Daphne took a step forward and promptly booped Subaru's stomach. "Subarun, you should eat first before we see Bea Bea. It's not good to skip out on breakfast after all."

"Oh yeah, I completely forgot about that. I guess we can eat first before we go meet up with Beatrice." Subaru also wanted to catch up with Roswaal and ask him if he could give Rem and Ram more recognition or something. It breaks his heart thinking that all their work is being taken for granted to the point that no one here seemed to even realize maids work here.

Daphne extended her hand out to Subaru while giving him a very expectant look. "Subarun, carry me."

Oh yeah, he completely forgot about the wheelchair project.

--

Subaru exhaustedly set Daphne down in a chair by the dining table and slumped into a chair of his own beside the unnaturally heavy girl. He still couldn't fathom how such a small girl could weigh so much.

"Are you ok, Subarun? You don't sound too good."

Still catching his breath, Subaru nodded. "Y-Yeah, I'm fine, I-I think I just need to eat."

"Oh! That makes sense. You really need to eat more, Subarun. It would be very bad if you withered away from starvation."

"Y-Yeah… I-I'll keep that in mind…" He would never tell Daphne the real reason. That would go to his grave.

Aside from that, Subaru looked around the table and to his surprise, no one was here. Usually Roswaal and Emilia would be here to greet them but it was quite eerily silent today.

"Where is everybody?" Subaru asked aloud.

Daphne raised her hand in the air before speaking up. "Ros Ros and the onis are-"

"Oh! Good morning Subaru and Daphne." Before Daphne could finish whatever she was about to say, Emilia had suddenly made an appearance.

Subaru immediately turned his attention to Emilia with a big goofy smile on his face. "Mili! You're looking as beautiful as ever."

Emilia puffed her cheeks out and pointed at Subaru. "Stop teasing me." After that, the silver haired girl looked around the table, noticing how empty it looked. "H-Hey, you two didn't eat without me, did you?"

Subaru shook his head. "No, we just got here ourselves. I'm surprised though, you and Roswaal are usually here before us. Did you oversleep or something?"

Emilia gave Subaru a weird look. "Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude or anything. I just meant that you're usually here before us."

"Oh! That's what you meant. I don't actually know. Now that I think about it, I do feel like something was supposed to happen…"

"Maybe Rem and Ram forgot to wake you up? I haven't seen Roswaal yet today so maybe he's having them do something first."

Emilia blinked a few times. It seemed pretty clear that she looked very clueless. "I'm sorry if I'm misunderstanding something but… what are you talking about?"

"You too…?" That was all Subaru could manage to say. He could understand Beatrice with her lack of social participation, he could understand Daphne being new here like himself, but Emilia? He was bewildered at this point. It was now that he finally understood something bad was going on here. "C-Cmon, you know Roswaal and his two maids. You couldn't have forgotten about them, have you?"

"Subaru?" Emilia asked. "Are you alright? Did you have enough sleep last night?"

Subaru gulped and nodded. It was clear that he was still very spooked about the situation. "Y-Yeah, I'm just fine, Emilia."

"Alright… But Subaru, who's Roswaal?"

"…" Subaru didn't have anything to say. Actually, he had no idea what he could say. He didn't understand one bit that was happening right now. "I-I… I don't…"

Emilia gave Subaru a concerned look. "Are you sure you're alright? I could try to find Beatrice since she's a great healer if you want. I know you've been trying to find her too so I think this will be a great chance to make up with her."

Despite how worried Subaru is, he couldn't help but smile at how sweet Emilia is. "Just seeing you be yourself is enough to make me feel better." However, Subaru knew this shouldn't be put off. He had to figure out whatever was going on here. "But, if you could get Beatrice, that would be great."

Emilia smiled sweetly, happy Subaru accepted her offer to bring him help. "Of course, Subaru. I'll do my best to convince Beatrice to check on you."

With a smile, Emilia left in hopes to bring Beatrice. After she was out of view, Subaru slumped over and let out a sigh. "What am I going to do about this? I don't even know where to start…"

This was a fantasy world after all so maybe there was some kind of magic at play here. Since Emilia is a Royal candidate and Roswaal is an important political figure, maybe an enemy of theirs attacked. But the main question was where should he start?

Now that he thought about it, he should check in Roswaal's office. If he was in there already, then most of his concerns would go away right then and there. If not, then he hoped that there was some kind of lead to what was going on in there.

With his next course of action decided, Subaru stood up from his seat. Before he set off though, Daphne quickly snatched his wrist, preventing him from going any further. "Subarun, where are you going? You haven't eaten yet!"

"How do you expect me to eat if there's nothing here?!" Subaru stopped his advance and pointed at the still empty table.

"You should've brought food while we were in the kitchen then. You told me that the food would be served to us so I didn't say anything about it but you should be more prepared, Subarun. Feeding yourself is very important after all."

"Yeah, you're right. I just didn't expect things to turn out the way it did. After I stop by Roswaal's office, I'll go to the kitchen and make us something, alright?" Normally, he didn't want to mess with the kitchen but seeing Daphne's persistence in making sure he eats properly, he figured Roswaal and the maids would understand.

Daphne in response nodded. "Alright, but you have to promise to eat right after that! I can't have my Subarun starve to death after all."

"Alright, alright. I promise to eat right after I stop by Roswaal's office."

Daphne nodded after Subaru's confirmation and hopped out of her seat. She was still holding onto Subaru's hand as she now stood by him, seemingly waiting for him to move on.

This caught the boy by surprise. Was Daphne going to walk on her own? "You don't want me to carry you?"

Daphne shook her head. "You shouldn't carry me right now, Subarun! If you use any more of your energy, you could risk dying of starvation! You need to conserve as much energy right now before your next meal."

To be honest, Subaru wasn't feeling as bad as Daphne thought him to be but why would he complain about this situation? The idea of not nearly breaking his back sounds way too good to pass up right now. "Th-Thanks Daphne, I really appreciate that actually!"

This time, Daphne stood behind Subaru and began pushing him forward, rushing him to get going. "Go on, Subarun! I can't let you starve to death!"

"Slow down, it isn't THAT bad!"

Despite his plea, Daphne continued to rush Subaru along.

Not long later, the two made it to Roswaal's office. Subaru wasted no time and let himself in.

"Hey, Roswaal? Are you here?"

Sure enough, there were no signs of Roswaal. However, the room itself looked like a complete wreck. His desk was flipped over and shelves were knocked over. In short, it looked as if a tornado swept through here. It was strange considering how the rest of the manor looked just fine. It was just this room specifically.

Something bad was definitely going on and whatever it was, Subaru was determined to find out what. Taking the initiative, he immediately began to look around the room, trying to look for any hints. "Would you help search for anything that would've done this, Daphne?"

Daphne shook her head. "There's no need for that, Subarun. This happened after I ate Ros Ros."

"What…?" Subaru stopped in place, turning his full attention towards Daphne.

"I said this happened after I ate Ros Ros. The onis ended up being territorial so they contributed to the mess. I had no choice but to eat them too." Before Subaru could properly digest what this girl just said, Daphne licked her lips. "Mmm~ Just thinking about how much they filled my appetite in one go is really making me want seconds~"

"How could you do that?!" Subaru finally snapped.

Daphne tilted her head. "How? Well, I knew that they were pretty strong based on their scent so I decided to subdue them as fast as I could. That way, I could preserve as much energy as I can to-"

"No!" He interrupted. "Why?! These people were nice to us! Are you serious that you killed them?!"

"Nice? I'm sorry, Subarun, but I'm confused. When were they nice? Those onis never stopped stalking you like you were prey. Ros Ros was also not nice."

Daphne proceeded to wear a disgusted look on her face. "The way he talked reminded me a lot of Dna Dna's annoying qualities and I could even smell a hint of her on him."

Subaru was stunned at Daphne's lack of sympathy. She didn't care one bit about anyone here. The second he left her alone for not even thirty minutes, he already murdered half of the inhabitants. It was now that he really understood what Beatrice was so scared of.

"You didn't have to take things this far! If you were so hungry, you could've just come to me!"

"I tried! I kept following your scent the second I woke up but it kept moving all over the place. I asked Ros Ros where you were but he started annoying me!"

"That's not an excuse!!!" Subaru yelled. "You murdered them! There are millions of ways to go about this and you chose to kill them! You're usually such a reasonable girl so what happened?! What made you throw logic out the window all of a sudden?!"

It was obvious that Daphne was confused over Subaru's outburst. "But Subarun, I already told you I was starving. Ros Ros also started it so it's his fault for picking his prey poorly."

"It doesn't matter who started it! You shouldn't attack people, let alone kill them, if you don't agree with them! If they're that annoying, just ignore them and leave!"

Daphne nodded understandingly. "If that's what Subarun wants, then I'll be sure to do that next time."

Subaru didn't know what to say. Just because she said she'll improve next time doesn't change the fact that she just murdered people. Now that he thought about it, the people who were helping Emilia's candidacy aren't here anymore. He wasn't sure what's going to happen now that Roswaal is gone.

Subaru's mind began to race. Won't people start wondering about Roswaal's disappearance eventually since he was apparently someone important? Will knights come here and arrest him since Roswaal disappeared mere days after he arrived?

That's right, this would make him look suspicious and there's no way anyone would believe a child did any of this.

Fear of being imprisoned plagued Subaru's mind. Before he fell too deep in that pit, Daphne began patting Subaru's head out of concern.

"Subarun? Are you ok? You look very pale."

Snapping out of his thoughts, Subaru looked at Daphne with a very nervous expression. "W-We have to leave…"

"Leave? Aren't you going to eat first?"

"We'll eat later! W-We have to go right now."

--

Fear

Subaru was too scared to confront this. After realizing Roswaal was dead, his first instinct was to run away. He considered ditching Daphne since she was the sole cause of this but knowing what she's capable of, he'd feel too guilty leaving that little monster alone.

As long as she was with him, she won't do anything bad. Those are the words he kept telling himself to justify bringing Daphne with him.

He did feel guilty for leaving Emilia behind but for the sake of his sanity, he told himself that Puck is with her and that she'll be just fine with him around.

"It's not my fault…" Subaru muttered to himself for probably the ninth time. "It was all just an accident…"

At this time, Subaru was taking a road alongside Daphne. The two were getting further and further away from the mansion. Daphne seemed to want to comfort Subaru but she kept her distance from him. She seemed to be aware that he needed to just be left alone right now.

The walk felt like ages as Subaru continued to chant to himself those same words every now and then. To say he had a lot on his mind was an understatement. But there was one thing that was for sure: everyone here would be better off if he just left.

The two walked for nearly an hour at this point and suddenly Subaru felt someone tug his sleeve. Looking at the source, it was Daphne.

"Are you mad at me?"

Yes. In fact, being mad was the least of his feelings right now. However, he couldn't say that. Looking at Daphne made him take a deep breath and went on to say something reassuring. "I-It's fine. You're still learning…"

Daphne nodded and latched onto Subaru's arm which made the boy flinch. He had to stop himself from swatting her away. "That's good. I'd be really sad if Subarun didn't want to see me anymore."

Damn these mixed emotions, he thought.

It was weird to have a cute young girl actually be such a vicious and terrifying monster. Especially if that very same monster was hugging him like a needy child.

"Oh! Subarun! I smell food!" Daphne suddenly shouted before pointing into a specific direction.

After looking up, he noticed a village in the distance. That's when it hit him, he remembered being told that there was a village nearby the mansion so this must have been it.

"Listen, Daphne. We're just going to get a bit of supplies and we're leaving. Alright?"

"Alright, but make sure you get a lot of food! Actually, get as much as you can!"

This all felt so unreal. What was he even doing right now? He thought.

(——)

Hm? You're still reading? Interesting…

Well, I do have quite a bit I'd like to say before this chapter's Daphne question. Actually, that's a lie, it's just two.

First, it's been awhile, hasn't it? I briefly explained it in another story of mine but I'll say it here too. I just got preoccupied with something else and kinda chose my priorities accordingly. I never really left as I'm active daily so yeah, I'm just weird as fuck.

Second, there was a fun fact I learned through my Re:Zero research sessions. It turns out Reinhard can't copy any divine protection he wants. There are apparently some divine protections that can only be bestowed onto one person at a time. An example is Meili. Reinhard said he couldn't copy that since only one person can have it at a time. I just thought that was very interesting and it gave me an ass ton of plot ideas. Well, not exactly for this story but certainly for some others.

Now for the Daphne question!

As you know, Roswaal and the maids are in the depths of Daphne's tummy. My question is if they should stay devoured or if Subaru should become Deadbaru to fix that?

Huh, now that I think about it, I don't think that really counts as a Daphne question, does it? I guess I'm lying a lot today.