Apparently, they were the Witches of Sin.
Six of them—seven, including her.
Which meant Subaru was sitting at a tea party with the most feared women in history.
Great.
Just great.
One of them—a woman with snowy white hair, piercing silver eyes, and an aura that practically screamed 'I know everything'—spoke first.
"Ahhh, now this is fascinating." She placed her teacup down with a graceful motion, smiling like a teacher who had just caught a student cheating on a test. "Of all the possibilities, of all the theories I could have considered, this outcome? Mmm, quite the revelation."
Subaru stared.
The woman studied her in return, resting her cheek against her hand.
"Let's make this easy," she said smoothly. "I am Echidna—the Witch of Greed. And since you clearly have no idea what's going on, allow me to enlighten you."
She gestured toward the others with a wave of her hand.
"Typhon, Witch of Pride."
The tan-skinned, green-haired girl who had called her 'Tella-chan' grinned, kicking her feet under the table. "Mhm! Nice to meetcha!"
"Minerva, Witch of Wrath."
The blonde woman in blue, arms crossed, let out a huff, looking Subaru over like a doctor inspecting a patient. "Tch. This is ridiculous."
"Daphne, Witch of Gluttony."
The girl in the coffin shifted slightly, a lazy, slow-moving smile stretching across her lips. "Mhm~ Food? Love? It's all the same, y'know?"
"Sekhmet, Witch of Sloth."
The purple-haired woman draped over her chair like she was physically incapable of sitting upright gave a lazy wave. "Mmm. Too much work, mhm."
"Carmilla, Witch of Lust."
The quietest of them all, a frail-looking girl with soft pink hair, avoided Subaru's gaze, shifting in her seat.
"And, of course, you—Satella, Witch of Envy." Echidna's smile widened. "Or, should I say… Natsuki Subaru?"
Subaru tensed.
There it was.
Proof.
They knew.
Echidna leaned forward, eyes gleaming. "You want to know why you're here? Why you're in Satella's body? Why you've been having such… questionable thoughts about yourself?"
Subaru didn't respond.
Because she already knew the answer.
She just didn't want to admit it.
Echidna, of course, answered anyway.
"Because she loved you that much."
A chill ran down Subaru's spine.
"So much that she summoned you into her own body."
It made too much sense.
The urges. Get faster updates on g.com.
The thoughts.
The overwhelming, sickening desire to love herself.
It was never about self-love.
It was Satella's love for him—forcefully twisted into an instinctual, inescapable craving.
Subaru felt sick.
Her stomach twisted, her skin crawled, and her mind refused to accept what she was hearing.
Satella had loved her so much that she had summoned her into her own body.
That was why everything felt wrong. That was why she had those thoughts, those urges, that craving to love herself, to hold herself, to worship herself in ways that made her want to vomit.
It wasn't her.
It was Satella's love bleeding into her instincts, forcing itself into her brain, into her emotions, making her want things she would never want.
She gritted her teeth.
"How do I get out of this?"
The table went silent.
Then, Minerva—the blonde woman with the permanent angry face—slammed her hands against the table, rattling the plates.
"Are you an idiot?! There is no getting out!"
Subaru flinched as Minerva stood up, glaring at her, fists clenched, pure frustration radiating from her.
"You don't get it, do you?! Satella is the strongest! No one can overwrite her authority! No one! Not the Dragon, not the Sage, not the Sword Saint—no one!"
Subaru's mouth felt dry.
Minerva took a sharp breath, stabbing a finger toward her.
"You're stuck, you hear me?! You're in her body! In her authority! Even if someone kills you, you'll just come back—over and over again—until you break completely! So stop asking stupid questions!"
Subaru's fingers curled into fists.
The hunger. The desire to kill. The fact that everything she touched rotted, decayed, died. The instincts that weren't her own.
"I hate it," she muttered, her voice shaking.
The witches watched her.
"I hate this hunger. I hate this desire to destroy. I hate these urges, these thoughts, these emotions that aren't mine!"
Typhon, the green-haired girl, giggled.
"Well, yeah," she said, kicking her legs. "That's because there's two of her in there, mhm~!"
Subaru blinked. "What?"
Echidna, still looking far too entertained, steepled her fingers. "Satella has two personalities."
Subaru felt her blood turn cold.
"The Satella you're pretending to be?" Echidna tilted her head. "That's the soft one. The quiet one. The one that locked herself away because she was too afraid of her own existence."
"And the other one?" Subaru's voice barely came out.
Typhon grinned.
"That's Envy~!"
Subaru stiffened.
"The real monster~!"
Typhon twirled a piece of hair between her fingers. "She's the one who ate us. Hehe, we're just ghosts now, y'know~?"
Subaru froze. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
Her mind blanked.
Her heart pounded painfully in her chest.
"What—"
"Ohhh, and she ate half the world too!" Typhon continued, nodding like she was talking about the weather. "Like—poof! Gone! Just like that!"
Subaru staggered back from the table.
Her stomach lurched.
Her lungs felt too tight.
Her body was shaking.
"I—" She choked on the words.
The witches watched her.
Waiting.
Judging.
Echidna smirked.
"You didn't know? Hmmm. Well, now you do."
Subaru's breath came shaky, uneven.
Half the world.
She had swallowed half the world.
No wonder people hated Satella.
No wonder the entire world feared her name.
And yet—
She forced herself to look up, staring at them, her hands trembling.
"Then why? Why would she love me?"
The words tumbled out before she could stop them.
"I was a nobody! I was just some stupid kid—some random boy with no power, no strength, no reason to be loved! And now—"
She gestured wildly at herself.
"Now I'm a witch?! Now I have followers who slaughter people like animals?! Now I'm some horrible monster that people whisper about in terror?! I hate myself now!"
A long, heavy silence.
Then, Daphne—still lounging in her coffin, still looking half-asleep—murmured:
"No idea~."
Subaru stared.
Daphne gave a slow, lazy grin.
"But hey~ Love doesn't have rules, y'know?"
Subaru wanted to scream.
TBC
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