"You call this bad compatibility? There's no one in the world who'd have good compatibility with someone in this state!"
Confronted with a completely restrained girl, Subaru delivered that heartfelt retort from the bottom of his soul.
The
The girl lying in the tilted coffin was approximately a hundred and fifty centimeters tall. Her shoulder-length hair, tinged grey, was gathered into two bunches. Pale-skinned and slender, flat-chested—or rather, she looked more like a child of thirteen or fourteen.
"Locked up tight in restraints, both eyes sealed shut, too… and judging by her apparent age, I'd think there's no way, but…"
Around that age, anyone would fantasize about possessing "extraordinary, supernatural powers" or "a latent potential so threatening that others fear it, suppressed against one's own will."
Now that he thought about it, back in middle school, Subaru himself had been influenced by manga he was reading at the time and developed a fascination with hidden-weapon specialists, sewing needles into various parts of his school uniform and all.
"Well, in the end I ended up quitting after falling and getting stabbed by needles all over my body, crying like a baby."
Reflecting on that dark history he'd never had anyone to show off to, Subaru couldn't decide on an approach toward the Witch before him.
In truth, the Witches he'd met until now had all launched aggressively intense first encounters on their own before Subaru even had a chance to act.
"————"
Directly ahead, the Witch in the coffin remained silent, showing no reaction whatsoever.
When the first impression was the most important, Subaru—normally so quick to take the initiative with someone he'd just met—found the silence weighing heavily. If only he could tell whether she was friendly or hostile, he could choose between being casual or provocative. But without even that…
"…………"
The two of them watched each other's stance while the silence continued to dominate the tea party on the small hill.
Even so, what gnawed at Subaru was the overwhelming pressure emanating from the girl before him. Her entire body was immobilized, her eyes sealed so they couldn't even look his way, yet the intimidation pouring from her petite frame was every bit what one would expect from a Witch.
He'd been so casual about pitting himself against the Witches of Sloth, Wrath, and Greed—and now he understood why
"…………Mm."
"—!?"
Just as tension caused sweat to trail down Subaru's forehead and he raised the back of his hand to wipe it from his eyes, Daphne suddenly moved, and Subaru shuddered.
Inside the coffin, the restrained girl slightly turned her head, and her breathing reached his ears. What kind of action would follow? Subaru braced his entire body in alarm.
And then— "……Snrph, mnyaah."
"—YOU WERE ASLEEP?!"
"Nyaah!?"
The instant he heard what sounded like snoring, Subaru lunged forward with his retort.
The soles of his feet slapped against the green hilltop, and the Witch, startled by both his voice and the sound, bounced within her coffin with a yelp.
Unable to see anything with both eyes sealed, she shook her head from side to side and— "What—what is it!? A person—was—just—finally—getting some good rest…!"
The grumbling complaint came out in an unusually syrupy drawl.
Whether the mushy speech endings were because she'd just woken up or simply her habit, it was unclear, but at the very least, the crushing pressure Subaru had felt earlier had vanished.
Had it all been in his head? Unable to hide his sense of deflation, Subaru said— "S-sorry. I got carried away and heated up. I didn't mean to yell."
"Jeez—getting startled by something like that is really inconvenient for Daphne, you know…"
"Gh… I'm apologizing. So cheer up. Don't be mad."
"Be—tse—no—I'm not angry at all? If I got angry, I'd just get even hungrier, you know? More importantly, who are you, anyway?"
He'd barely managed an apology before it was rejected, and she steered the conversation into her own laid-back rhythm. They'd only exchanged a few words, yet the rhythm of their conversation was already wildly off. And Subaru finally understood, at least vaguely, what Echidna had meant.
—This Witch's conversational pace was completely out of sync with his own.
Sighing at this ominous start, Subaru lightly shook his head to clear his expression, then flashed an extremely friendly smile at her.
"My name is
"Ohh—Dona Dona has friends, does she? Maybe Suba-rin should be more careful about choosing friends too, you know? When people hear you're friends with a Witch, your real friends and family might end up hating you… maybe…?"
Having received Subaru's self-introduction, Daphne proceeded to offer completely unsolicited advice. The latter half of her sentence trailed off, apparently because she'd run out of breath mid-sentence.
Shoulders heaving inside the coffin, clearly exhausted, Subaru called out— "Why are you so worn out? Does that coffin have some kind of effect that drains the life force of whoever's inside just by being in it?"
"N-no—it's just—that Daphne gets tired easily, or rather, she's reaaally hungry and can't summon any energy… Is there—maybe—something to eat…? Haaah…"
"You get winded just from talking? That's the textbook definition of frail体质 right there… As for food, there's only Dona's tea and some cookie-like snacks on the table."
The snacks were, in practice, mysterious confections that resembled cookies. Given that the tea was made from Echidna's bodily fluids, there was a possibility—no small one—that these were made from Echidna's actual cells.
Unlike the tea, which could be downed in one gulp, he'd deliberately avoided touching the food. But when Daphne heard "cookies," her reaction was radiantly bright.
"P-p-p-perfect! That's perfect—give them to Daphne—into Daphne's mouth—hurry, please, hurry…!"
"If you cut out just that scene, it sounds super questionable, so could you please stop!? Well, I'm not cruel enough to keep a starving person waiting, but still."
Subaru picked up the plate of snacks and moved toward Daphne's coffin, intending to deliver a cookie to her immobilized mouth. But just before he did— "Oh, wait wait—Suba-rin, could you wait just a moment?"
"Hm? What is it? Just so you know, there's probably only one flavor. Doesn't feel like there's chocolate in there, so it's plain. If you tell me you hate it, all I can say is 'no leftovers allowed,' but—"
"That's not what I mean… When you feed me, I'd really rather you didn't come too close."
"That's a pretty tough request when I'm trying to feed you!"
Rejected from approaching, Subaru stood there holding the plate of cookies, at a complete loss.
From inside the coffin, the girl propped herself up slightly and said— "I don't want you to misunderstand—it's not that I find Suba-rin unpleasant, or that I dislike you, or anything like that…"
"That reassurance actually makes me trust you less! The reason! Tell me the reason!"
"Because of Suba-rin's smell… if you get too close, I worry it might be poison…"
"You're calling my body odor poisonous?!"
Hit with an even more damaging remark, Subaru hurriedly raised his arm and sniffed it. He couldn't detect any particular stench, but humans were naturally dull to the smell of their own bodies.
Running his eyes from head to toe over himself, Subaru said— "Smell? Do I really smell? I've been bathing since we came to the
"No—not like that. C'mon, you should know this, right? Suba-rin?"
"I don't know! Stop being all coy about it! Spit it out clearly!"
Growing impatient, Subaru beckoned with his hand. In response, Daphne slowly shook her head from side to side, creaking the coffin, and continued in her own peculiar rhythm— "If Daphne smells Suba-rin's scent too much… she might end up wanting to eat Suba-rin more than the cookies, and that would be a problem…"
"…Sorry, I have no idea what you're saying."
"You see, Daphne likes meat more than vegetables, and firmer meat more than soft meat… something like that."
Without warning, a chill shot up Subaru's spine.
He held his breath and stared at her. Her condition hadn't changed one iota from the beginning—still wedged in the coffin, bound in restraints that prevented any movement, her eyes shrouded in darkness, having never once looked his way.
If this wasn't some sort of fashionable bondage— "Based on your smell alone, Suba-rin, you're packed with muscle, your meat is firm, and your bones look really thick—which means you're, like, really, really… exactly the kind of thing Daphne finds most delicious. So if you get too close, I might just eat you up, you smell so good…"
"E-eat me up… in a sexual sense?"
"In a literal sense…"
Pronounced differently but unmistakably in the same category of words, the statement made Subaru's blood run cold.
He swiftly put as much distance between them as possible, then, from a safer remove, picked up a single cookie from the plate.
"I'm going to throw it at you from here. Sorry if I miss your mouth!"
"That's fine, Suba-rin. Just throw it loosely—like you're aiming vaguely at the coffin. Daphne will get it on her own."
"That sounds deeply unsettling… but fine, here goes!"
Winding up, Subaru tossed the cookie in a gentle overhand throw.
The cookie—about the size of a five-hundred-yen coin—arced through the air, and with surprising accuracy, landed perfectly inside Daphne's mouth. An extreme focus had granted him a level of control he'd never experienced before.
With the precision of threading a needle, the cookie shot into Daphne's mouth. She swept it off her tongue and into her gullet in one gulp.
"Munyumu… Mmm, yummy. It tastes like Dona Dona."
"Whether that means it's Dona's homemade recipe or that she actually mixed some dark magic and parts of her body into the cookie, I have no idea… Going for round two."
"Yesss, I can't wait. More… please, more…"
"You're going to make me miss if you keep moaning like that, so could you please shut up!?"
Shutting down Daphne's provocative pleading—which was doing wonders for certain imaginative scenarios—Subaru launched cookies in rapid succession. It was a scene that would get him scolded for playing with food, but the intensity of his focus was far beyond the scope of any such reprimand.
Daphne did need to tilt her head slightly each time, but every single cookie made it into her mouth. And just as Subaru was relaxing in relief, seeing that the plate was nearly cleared— "—Ah."
A gust of wind swept over the hill, stronger than before. The light cookie was caught in the updraft and its arc went wild, sailing well off-target across the table and toward the hillside slope. It would fall, and become ant food—or so it seemed, until— "No waay… what a waste…"
Daphne, with her extraordinary sense of smell, noticed that the cookie had gone off-course. She followed its trajectory with her sightless gaze, and in the next moment, Subaru saw— "—!?"
With a tremendous sound, sharp claws gouged through the earth of the hill, tearing it apart.
Dirt exploded upward, the continuing impacts spreading the destruction outward, until they reached the spot beneath the falling cookie— "Oh, mmph."
Daphne extended her neck, caught the cookie between her red lips, and with a blissful expression, placed it inside her mouth. She chewed in complete silence—the sound inaudible—and after swallowing, her pink tongue slowly licked her lips, moistening them as she let out a breathy "Haaah."
Having witnessed all of this, Subaru was speechless.
Noticing his silence, Daphne wrinkled her small nose and said— "Suba-rin… there are still two left, you know? Don't be mean…"
Cheeks flushed, lips trembling like a bird's—the girl's appearance was endearing.
Even with both eyes sealed, her entire body locked down in restraints, shut away inside a black coffin— "…No, I'd have to be inhuman not to be shaken by this."
—if only that coffin hadn't sprouted crab-like legs and carried its host at inhuman speed.
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ "Can I… ask what exactly happened there?"
Still reeling from the initial shock, Subaru mechanically launched the remaining two cookies at her demand. Despite the trembling of his fingertips throwing off his aim, the coffin's swift footwork caught both with ease, sending them into Daphne's mouth.
Savoring the sweetness to her heart's content, Daphne made a contented "Mmm" sound. But noticing the question Subaru had somehow managed to squeeze out— "What does 'that' even refer to? Poor Daphne can't see, so she has no idea."
"The… you know, the incredibly well-crafted, mobile coffin with the gleaming design. From the limited depth of my knowledge, coffins don't usually have legs, and they certainly don't scuttle around like insects at high speed."
Creaking and groaning, the coffin slowly returned to its original position with Daphne still inside. It settled onto the meadow with a thud, and as if being sucked in, the crab-like legs retracted back into the coffin. The motion resembled a turtle pulling its limbs and head into its shell.
Looking satisfied with Subaru's observation, Daphne let out a cheerful "Aah" and said— "You mean the Centipede Coffin? This is a little companion Daphne made because it's so inconvenient not being able to move. She's usually very quiet and well-behaved, you know?"
"You made it… Is it a living creature?"
Though it moved with biological fluidity and seemed to possess organs, he couldn't quite convince himself that it fell under the category of living things. Of course, it was equally certain that it wasn't mechanical.
"It doesn't eat or drink, but the Centipede Coffin absorbs mana just like any living thing, you know? Must be nice not getting hungry…"
"Eating mana… I'll just ignore that for now. More importantly—you said you made it? Can you create living things?"
"Well, not so much living things… more like magical beasts. They seem to be born from Daphne's will, or her moods, that kind of hazy, fluffy feeling…"
From inside the coffin, Daphne writhed, her words painting no concrete picture. Yet even through that vague aura, Subaru could sense that she was doing something outrageous.
—Creating life. That was nothing short of the work of a god.
In his original world, humans had dabbled in such forbidden science through selective breeding and cloning, but to create something from nothing—that was the exclusive domain of gods.
Whether one viewed this as blasphemy against life or as the achievement of a divine mystery was a matter of individual perspective.
"No way… Daphne's negative legacy… the phrase 'brought magical beasts into existence'—that was meant literally?"
"Hmm?"
"The
"Nn-hmm… Oh my, what nostalgic names. That's right. The Whale, Snakey, and the Rabbit—they're all Daphne's children."
"WHY?!"
Baring his teeth at her confirmation, Subaru closed the distance between them and unleashed his words with spit flying.
Face flushed red with fury, Subaru pointed an accusing finger at Daphne.
"Why did you create those monsters?! They rampaged through the outside world for four hundred years after you died! Do you have any idea how much damage they caused?! How many—dozens, hundreds—of people suffered horrifically because of them?!"
What flashed through his mind was the fierce battle on the Lifaus Highway when they had clashed head-on with the White Whale.
Wilhelm's screams and tenacity after losing his wife, and the laments and rage of every knight who had taken part in that battle—all of it stemmed from the White Whale, and the tragedy born of the Witch who had created it.
And the Great Rabbit that had attacked the Sanctuary—if Subaru's future actions didn't bear fruit, every resident of the Sanctuary, starting with Emilia, would be devoured.
The Great Rabbit was a natural disaster that had continued its horrors for eternity. And the cause was none other than the Witch before him.
"What was the point?! Tell me! Why did you create those monsters—creatures that have caused so much suffering to so many people?!"
"…? Don't bigger creatures provide more of a challenge to eat?"
"A—wh—huh?"
Charging forward with all his fury, Subaru was met with Daphne's bewildered face and that singular response.
Daphne's words hit him with an unexpected full stop, and Subaru's tongue couldn't keep up with his thoughts—only a groan escaped.
Seeing Subaru like this, Daphne looked puzzled.
"The White Whale was huge, wasn't it? When you eat something that big, you'd think lots of people would get full, right?"
"Do what… with what?"
"And the Great Rabbit multiplies no matter what. So if you have even one, they'll keep multiplying on their own—and you'd never have to worry about running out of food, right?"
"Multip—huh?"
Daphne's words reached his ears, but their meaning failed to shake his brain into comprehension.
If those words—this cluster of phrases that were just barely rattling inside him—meant exactly what they said, then Subaru had no idea what the Witch before him was actually saying.
Truly, from the bottom of his heart, he had no idea what she meant.
"Wha—huh… Are you saying you created magical beasts to solve some kind of food crisis?! You're telling me you made the White Whale and the Great Rabbit to help people who were starving to death?! And yet, because of your 'kindness,' countless people have been devoured by them?!"
"…? When you try to eat something, isn't it a bit selfish to not consider that you might be eaten in return?"
"…………"
"And besides, humans and demi-humans alike—I think this world just has too many of them, all things considered. If those kids could reduce and tidy up the numbers a little, Daphne thinks that's perfectly fine."
"Th-then the White Whale's fog that erases existence, and the Great Rabbit devouring settlements at will… what about those?"
"Daphne doesn't know the specifics of how they hunt. How those kids grow, how much they eat, where they end up getting eaten… Knowing all that wouldn't fill Daphne's hunger anyway."
Watching Daphne speak with a smile, Subaru arrived at a painfully belated understanding.
The meaning of Echidna's words finally became clear to him.
She had said that Subaru and Daphne's compatibility was the worst possible.
Subaru had assumed that was because her laid-back nature clashed with his impatient personality—an absurdly optimistic and misguided conclusion.
—Subaru and Daphne did not share the same values.
No, it wasn't just Subaru. There was no person in the world whose values would align with hers.
She viewed the world from a perspective entirely removed from that of humans or demi-humans. She didn't even side with the magical beasts she herself had created.
The law of the jungle—her entire philosophy could be summed up in that single phrase. The existence of things that ate, the multiplication of prey, and the act of devouring—everything else was trivial.
He was at a loss for words. Their mental structures were fundamentally different.
Until now, Subaru had encountered Witches who, despite their issues, were at least capable of holding a conversation. That had led him to misunderstand the nature of what he was facing.
She was a Witch. They were Witches. There were only seven in the entire world—and these were the real thing.
"You know, Suba-rin, and everyone else too—don't you all take 'Gluttony' far too lightly?"
"…………"
"Food is, after all, the most important desire for survival! If you can't satisfy it, you die. Isn't that obvious?"
"…………"
"Not having peace of mind, not being loved, not being able to express emotions, not maintaining a sense of self, not getting what you want, having nothing to admire—none of those things will kill a person. But…"
"…………"
"If you can't eat, you'll die."
Among the Seven Deadly Sins, only Gluttony was directly connected to life and death.
In its truest sense, Gluttony meant pursuing the appetite beyond necessity. But the actual meaning behind Daphne's words was about the appetite required to survive.
And Subaru couldn't deny it. Her statement did, in fact, point to a truth of existence. But to believe that was all there was—that was where she was wrong.
"What you're saying is partially correct… but that way of thinking…"
"Maybe Suba-rin should try starving himself to his limit just once? Then… you'd surely understand what Daphne means."
It was an attitude and a suggestion that were far too Witch-like.
With a gentle sway, Daphne rose from inside the coffin. A sound like tearing paper rang out, and the restraining belts that had been crisscrossing her body came undone as easily as a dress. She pushed the dull white restraints aside with an annoyed sweep of her arm, then stepped barefoot out of the coffin and onto the meadow.
She wiggled her small limbs, testing the stiffness in her body— "Getting hungry makes it so she doesn't want to move under her own power… You know…?"
Even that minimal warm-up left Daphne winded.
But facing her, Subaru couldn't move a single step. Even his breathing felt seized.
The petite Witch—the pressure radiating from her entire being held Subaru in an unyielding grip. It was like being clamped tightly in an enormous palm.
"I could just eat Suba-rin as he is, but Dona Dona and Meto Meto would probably get angry… Hmm, would just the left eye be enough?"
As she spoke, Daphne reached up to the eyepatch covering her left eye.
Don't release the restraints, don't touch her, don't look into her eyes—these had been Echidna's warnings to Subaru before releasing Daphne.
But she had freed the restraints herself, she showed no signs of reaching toward him (though her movement was pinned by the sheer pressure), and as for the final warning— "————"
A golden left eye.
A perfectly ordinary, round, girlish pupil.
Lifting only the eyepatch on her left side, Daphne showed that eye to Subaru directly.
As if pierced by that gaze, Subaru's movements froze. After a moment, Daphne blinked that eye several times, then— "That's enough."
She turned back toward the coffin with the same exhausted movements, then fell into it as if collapsing. The coffin caught her gently.
Shifting inside, Daphne searched for the most comfortable position. Unable to move, Subaru simply watched in silence, chewing on something inside his mouth.
Daphne yawned, having already replaced her eyepatch and sealed both eyes. Gradually, the lining of the coffin peeled away, writhing and wrapping around her small body, constricting it.
It was nothing other than her own restraints—applied by her own will.
"What just happened—or rather, what is that, and why—"
"You still haven't noticed?"
Subaru had been about to ask why she restrained herself. Daphne interrupted, and from inside the coffin, she shifted to test her own bindings.
At her words, Subaru furrowed his brow—and suddenly realized.
"Ah…?"
Pain. It was pain.
Subaru doubled over as a pain erupted in his abdomen—so intense it felt as though a hole were being bored through him.
His stomach twisted, screaming with thirst and hunger—an overwhelming sense of starvation. Groaning and writhing in agony, Subaru sank to his knees on the meadow.