"Rei chan." Merlin said as she saw Rei wake up."Mn?" Rei replied whilst rubbing his eyes with his small hands. Some of the servants saw this and felt their hearts beat from how cute Rei acted, they just wanted to pick him up and cuddle him. However, if Rei were to know of what they though, he would surely curse out once more at his body.
"Your dad has gone to look for a giant to join us, so he won"t be here for a while is that ok?" Merlin asked as she looked at Rei who is currently stretching his tiny body.
"Un it ok." Rei said in his childish voice while he finished stretching.
"You"ll stay with me near my lab for a while is that ok?" She asked as they reached her tower.
Rei nodded as he felt his energy reserves.
"Che with this amount I can"t even summon out more than 3 swords before I faint. And they"re not even good swords either." Rei thought as Merlin carried him to the lab.
"Ah when can I use transformation magic again!!!" Rei mentally cried out feeling the down sides of his current body.
[Host be patient. Your body must fully develop first before your magic reserves grow. And also, your transformation magic needs a lot more mana since you are actively changing your body structure. The only reason you could use it straight away last time was because your reserves and body had already been tempered to a large degree allowing you transformation without much drain.]
"Haaaaa....So I"m stuck with this for quite a while then?"
[Indeed.]
"I guess i"ll just do theory study with Merlin for now then..." Rei thought as he shuffled out of Merlin"s hug and crawled onto the lab table.
"Ohya? So eager." Merlin said as she handed Rei a book on seals.
"Rei chan, would this do?" Merlin asked.
"Un!" Rei nodded while he flipped through the book.
Merlin set up a small barrier so that he won"t fall just in case and started to work on her own experiments.
Rei could see from the book that a lot of the seals in here had more uses than he could have though of. From ones to keep the appearance of someone till they die, to ones which allow the extraction of someone"s soul.
Rei started to immerse himself in the book slowly increasing his understanding of seals.
Merlin on the other hand watched Rei study the seals with such intensity that Rei started to swing his little legs back and forth while reading.
"Cute..." Merlin thought before going back to her experiments. She had started to develop more spells for each of the elements so that she can teach it Rei for countering against the demons and G.o.ddess clans.
This carried on for a few months. Which Rei started to get a more uncomfortable feeling in his mouth. He had tried to use his tongue to relieve the pain. Checking in the mirror, Rei could see that his fangs are starting to grow out.
"Hmm....This isn"t good. Soon I"ll need to feed again. And I"m pretty sure that it would be bad if I turned someone in the castle into a vampire." Rei though as he walked away from the mirror.
"Wait can"t I just ingest some blood?" Rei thought as he slapped himself on the forehead.
"Haaa, I"ll ask Merlin for it when it happens."
Plodding back to the lab, Rei was about to immerse himself back into the book of seals when the ground shook. Quickly looking out the window, Rei could see Diane the giant that Meliodas went to find.
Turning around to Merlin, Rei gestured out the window.
"Rei chan? You want to see the giant and your dad?" Merlin asked as she also looked out the window.
Rei nodded as he started to climb onto the table Merlin was at. Grabbing Rei before he could fall, Merlin then flew towards Diane and Meliodas with Rei in her arms.
"Captin welcome back." Merlin said as she landed near them.
"Yo! This is Diane, a new member. And Diane, this is Merlin also a member of the 7 sins." Meliodas introduced Diane and Merlin to each other.
"Oh and the kid here is my son." Meliodas said not forgetting Rei.
"EEHHHH!!! Meliodas you have a wife and kid!!" Diane said heartbroken.
"Nope I don"t have a wife and Rei isn"t my biological son." Meliodas said picking Rei up from Merlin.
"Oh phew." Diane sighed in relief. As she hoped that Meliodas didn"t have a love interest or her new found love will be short. She then crouched down to get a better look at Rei and saw his puffy cheeks. Unable to retain her urge, Diane poked her finger to it.
"KYAAAA SO SOFT!" Diane said as she felt the texture of Rei"s cheeks.
Rei on the other hand was. .h.i.tting her finger with his hand trying to get it out of his view.
"Diane, I want you to be like a older sister for Rei is that ok? I want him to be surrounded by a family." Meliodas said to Diane who stopped feeling Rei"s cheeks.
Diane nodded as she looked at Rei.
"Rei chan I"ll be your big sister from now ok?" Diane said. Rei nodded signifying that he understood which Diane beamed happily at.
"Yo! Captain! Is this the new member?" Ban called out as he walked over.
"Mn? Yeah, this is Diane." Meliodas said looking at Ban.
"Yo! I"m Ban." Ban greeted her as he walked over.
"Hi I"m Diane." She replied whilst still keeping her eyes on Rei.
"Now then, Diane are you able to show me one of your abilities?" Meliodas said looking up to Diane.
"Sure, Heavy Metal!!" Diane said as her body became the colour of steel.
Meliodas then looked at Rei suggesting he should copy it. Understanding Meliodas" look, Rei tried to use Heavy Metal on himself. His arm started to turn a steel colour shocking Diane and Ban.
"Woah little guy, you can use it too." Ban said looking at Rei.
"Impossible! Heavy Metal is an ability for the Giant clan. How does Rei have it?" Diane asked shocked.
"Well you see, Rei chan here has two abilities. First one we like to call Gluttony. He is able to eat any type of energy attack towards him and use it himself. The second one is the one he just showed. By looking at people demonstrating their abilities, Rei is able to copy them but how much he can use is limited by his strength." Merlin explained causing Ban and Diane"s eyes to widen.
"Hey captain, isn"t that too much of a cheat?" Ban asked looking at Rei.
"Kis.h.i.+s.h.i.+s.h.i.+s.h.i.+, not at all. It will be good for Rei to be able to protect himself in the future." Meliodas said with a smile.
"Ne ne Rei chan. Big sis here has a harder job to impress you now." Diane pouted as she crouched down near Rei.
"Wait can Rei also copy my ability?" Ban asked.
"Yep just demonstrate it and Rei can get it." Meliodas grinned.
"Hou~ Captain want to help me demonstrate to Rei?" Ban asked.
"Sure." Meliodas handed Rei over to Merlin as he walked in front of Ban.
"s.n.a.t.c.h!!" Ban said as he started to take Meliodas" power. After a few seconds, Ban decided to stop.
"Rei did you get that?" Meliodas asked looking over at Rei with a smile.
"Un, Sach!!" Rei said as Ban could feel a bit of his power being taken.
"Hahahaha, mini capt. You really got s.n.a.t.c.h from me." Ban laughed as he walked over to Rei and poked his cheeks with a smile.
Rei frowned slightly as he tried to push Ban"s finger away. Ban could only smile at how uncomfortable Rei felt.
"Now then, we have Me, Merlin, Ban, King who is in his room resting and Diane. We just need two more and we have gathered the whole group." Meliodas said informing Ban and Diane on the current member count.
"Hou~ We still have two more to go." Ban said as he stood up straight.
"Actually, only one more. I"ve found the next one Gowther. He should be coming soon." Merlin spoke up.
"Then just one more then." Meliodas grinned.
"All that"s left is Escanor. That also means that the Vampire clan will invade the Kingdom of Edinburgh soon." Rei thought about the time line as the group returned to their resting areas.