Present time- 1st day at church, Lunchtime
"Children, food is available in the main hall!" A priest said loudly to the entire common room.
All the children were hungry and started getting up, of course so did the nobles as everyone knew the church would make food acceptable for all levels of society. However, the church did not think of one demographic, the reincarnator from Eastern Asian Countries, namely a certain duke heir, Elias.
Elias hadn't had a taste of Western food when in Pheonia since he was 8-months old. Elias to be honest is a slightly picky eater who despises heavy foods. On the walk to the cafeteria, Elias was once covered up again but this time, the boys were a little more cautious of Elias.
AN: all of them got a Lil crush yk ( ͡o ͜ ͡o) we know but they dontttt
Elias ignored the stares and was focused on the upcoming food and mentally freaking out,
"This stupid church with this western food, why does it have to make my stomach hurt this much, that's right why can't we have 'bai zhou', its a staple, light, and tastes like home!"
(asian rice porridge/congee= bai zhou)
The boys all had excellent hearing and of course, heard Elias' mumbles underneath his breath so their minds began turning to figure out a solution, however, our MC, of course, can find a solution faster than them.
"Instead of going to get food in the main hall do you guys want to have a picnic, I'll make food for us! A picnic is when you sit down on the grass and eat outside with friends" Elias suddenly turned around saying this.
The six other children were flabbergasted, to say the least. As nobles? To sit on the ground??? This type of 'picnic' sounds like it is for commoners. However, Damien, the makeshift leader of the group said, "Sure, I like tea snacks which are easy to make."
The boys were all curious to see how this goes, Elias on the other hand was thinking about something more serious,
'They are all nice people and they all even want to be my friend. I never was going to hide my information from the public so it would be fine to tell them how to upgrade their magic without the stone and tell them I used it earlier? I can't read people at all but I think it will be fine. The only precaution is that we can't let the information out to the public. The king has been hiding for years, leaving the main governing body to be handled between the dukes and the church. By weakening the church it demoralizes commoners and makes our jobs harder.'
Elias got ready to use his creation magic to make some tea, parfaits, tea sandwiches, Aglio e Olio, and chicken katsu sandwiches for the boys while making himself congee with fish. Using his knowledge of the area, Elias found an idea of a place where they could have their picnic, be undisturbed, which would allow Elias to de-cloak himself.
(Aglio e olio is an Italian pasta dish, chicken katsu sandwiches are breaded chicken cutlets with lettuce, Tonkatsu sauce, and usually kewpie mayo.)
10 minutes and a short walk later:
"Okay Everyone close your eyes!" Elias yells
Everyone closes their eyes slowly...
While doing so, Elias takes out all the food he made from creation magic from out of thin air and onto his picnic placing.
"Okay open your eyes"
The boys did and were surprised,
all- 'This doesn't seem like such a grimy and dirty experience?'
Adonis the clean freak- 'mhm it's pretty good I guess.."
Elias stated while they were standing, "The food will get cold if you keep standing there, I know you extreme nobles don't do this kind of stuff so I'll explain. Picnics are for enjoying the outdoors and are made to be really carefree" He starts to take off his cloak and adds,
"I have to tell you guys something pretty serious too afterward regarding the church and magic so you guys should have fun"
The boys were suspicious of the last words but quickly dug into the food Elias prepared
"Elias, why do you eat something else?"
"I know you guys have palates like the church and heavy foods so I kept that in mind, this is congee made of rice and is a staple in my diet."
The boys all nodded and asked to try what Elias was eating, indeed for them it tasted disgusting and they decided to dig into the sandwiches.
The children all had fun and talked all afternoon
Elias then asked them to go back to his room so that they could talk about the church and magic. After entering, Elias sets up a sound and sight barrier making everyone on the outside believe there is no one in Elias' room.
"Okay everyone this is really serious and it would change the entire magic system if found out."
After hearing the importance of the information, they all turned solemn.
"I figured how to activate magic, not only without the meilrune stone but also with the ability to make you stronger than using the stone with a higher success rate of magicians."
This information made the jaws drop from everyone. They had a feeling Elias was really smart but lazy but this outdid it. This was huge! Yet it wasn't like they weren't geniuses themselves so they quickly figured out the reason of why Elias didn't release it to the public.
"Do you want to test the idea on us or do you have anybody that was completed the process?" Atlas said intrigued.
"I do... myself!" Elias said with a smile, "Would you like me to show you? Hmmmmm.... I'll choose an easy one, using magic he created a little show,
Elias made himself levitate on water, and water swirled all around him, before freezing the entire thing stiff and then breaking the ice into such a cloud of dust it seemed to disappear in the air.
The other 6 boys were shocked, this new idea paired with the fact Elias was so good at magic was unbelievable, Elias was proof! Since there is a strict rule to not having magic earlier, Elias must've developed with his method.
"But why are you telling us?" Atlas asked a tad suspicious
"I didn't want to hog this idea to myself and the church makes it so I can't let the idea go widespread. I was going to scope you guys out more but I feel like you guys are genuinely kind, besides if you touch that meilrune stone this evening without my interference then I can't give you another method. I couldn't really wait."
"I'll do it," Xerxes said,
'If I want to get stronger I will use this method, it's just as safe and I want to be able to support Elias'- Xerxes thought
The rest stepped forward as well, a tad giddy...
Elias explained to them,
"Okay great, when we go to the ceremony at 5PM, you will feel the air around your hand, it will look to everyone else you are getting sealed but to you and me, it's clear that you aren't even close to touching the rock. Let's have a sleepover in my room, however, I don't think it'll be too fun, you guys would probably sleep for 3 hours each but after I expend my mana I'll be more susceptible to my sloth sin so my horns will come out and I will sleep. It's nothing dangerous, just makes me tired."
"Okay!" The boys were excited, to get their powers faster and have more expendable mana, this is great! The Belphegors aren't known as physically and intellectually powerful for nothing.
'On top of that our little Elias is quite the looker'
Sleepover time!!!!! :)
"I won't be up when you guys are so I can tell you, your affinities tomorrow if you would like!"
"Ah that would be excellent," Damien said with a little smile
"Okay who would like to go first, and it might feel a little awkward since my mana isn't native to your body but entering, I haven't tested that part but my mana has a peaceful tendency so many things usually accept it."
AN/: It's at this point Elias says how they need to sleep, temperature, and snacks while working with the force around their body.
Elias says, "I'll give an incentive, whoever sleeps the least gets a dessert that they've never had before but will definitely like!"
Absolutely none of the 7 children in the room didn't have a sweet tooth so after, the boys kept their minds focused and their limbs loose.
"Okay, who'll go first?" Elias says
"I'll go!" Orpheus says with a little smile
"Okay, I'm sure it won't be painful but just tell me if it is okay?"
"mmkay"
Elias proceeds to usher him to the bed where he asks Orpheus to lie on his back, and after Elias stops circulating his mana, for him to sleep with his knees tucked in a little more.
Orpheus does as asked and once comfortable, Elias starts. Elias puts his soft hand on Orpheus' chest and begins to use his mana to create a seal around the body, and condense his mana into a ball with his own power.
Thoughts when Elias is close to Orpheus but not starting to circulate yet:
Elias: 'Dear goodness, I hope this works, if all goes to fail I'll take one each night and create a mana core out of my creation magic for them'
Orpheus: 'He smells kind of good, like cold, crisp air with a sort of nice floral and herbal scent.'
_____
"Okay get ready..."
Orpheus prepared himself but he was surprised at what came instead of pain. A large dose of warmth was coming into his chest from Elias' hand and it was so, comfortable.
'What?... It's so nice, is this what warmth feels like?'
As an heir of the Orpheus family, he doesn't feel from is his nerves as much as any other person would. No one in the family has good nerve receptors so it was always really cold. One of the first times ever, he felt warm, really warm. It was really nice but wait...
"focus, I need to create my mana core."
_____
All the other boys watched nearby, noticing it wasn't painful and actually comfortable they began to feel a little jealous of Orpheus even though they knew that they would receive similar treatment later on...
As the night went on, all the boys had now started to circulate and according to Elias' guess, they would finish in around 2-ish hours. However at the moment, Elias didn't care, he just wanted to sleep. Letting out his horns to be 6-8 inches covered in white cherry-blossom like flowers he drags himself into the bed filled with 6 other boys and falls asleep right in the middle. Elias stayed knocked out for a long while.
1 hour later
With the added increase of Elias' mana with the other abundant mana, the cores were completed quickly and second only to Elias'.
All of them, except woke up within the same hour at 3AM in the morning. Everyone was self-aware that they were currently in a bed for 6 other people but no one really minded, the children were all too exhausted to refute otherwise. The 6 boys would never tell another soul, but, they all wanted to stay in bed since they all liked something about Elias and the others. They didn't know what but each took an arm, torso, and chest of the reincarnated boy and fell back asleep, content and happy.
_______
The next morning
Orpheus woke up first to a light blinding his eyes, once clearing up he realized he wasn't in an environment he'd recognized. Shooting up he wakes up the other boys accidentally (other than the one with sloth sin ofc), no one there is a deep sleeper except for the smallest one. After looking at each other all of the children were a little embarrassed.
'We are all 8! It's not like we are 5 years old, this is so embarrassing!'
All of them get out of bed but upon all getting off, they notice the enchanting sleeper still unconscious. The children stood there and gaped.
The appearance of Elias was anything but normal, wearing a white loose nightdress that showed his cute feet just at the bottom as he curled his body a little and faced his body away from the sun attacking him from the left. His head was flat on a pillow though because a little known something was preventing any other position, the most exquisite horns sat atop his head with flowers blooming all over them. The room smelled great for the fresh flowers and Elias himself gave a scent that would make the greediest merchant want to give up his fortune for an everlasting experience of the fragrance.
This look gave most of the boys an idea for what they were experiencing...
love.
As best friends, paired with the position they were going to be working closely in the future the 6 males were the best of buddies. Although none of them expected to all desire the same person, the person was at the same status of them with the looks that would leave benevolent forest fairies, queens, and entire empires jealous.
None of these children were really children, even though they all realized they had some childish tendencies, when it came to be serious, most nobles underneath the dukes couldn't be seen on the same level as them. Of course none could be labeled the smartest in the world because all acknowledged it would go to the sleeping beauty. Even if the boys studied for 20 years straight none could create and perfect the magic process like Elias. So upon talking a conclusion was reached...
"He's ours...
and no one gets to touch him other than us."