บท 50: Abandoned

[Narrator POV]

The doorbell chimed as eren entered the house, holding a bag full of dry wood. At this time of the day, his dad would be out working as usual while his mother would clean up the house.

However, to his surprise both his parents were sitting cozily by the fireplace with a warm blanket draped over his mom while his father was gazing into the fire with a little bit of life in his eyes.

Both of them had not yet noticed his presence and eren planned to keep it that way. Although tempted to be a part of this family, he also knew he would be seen as a hindrance to his father. Thus, slowly levitating himself so as not to make the wooden floor creak to his steps, he headed towards the kitchen to put down the firewood.

"Welcome back…eren."

Unfortunately, Grisha had long since noticed him as soon as the doorbell rang. His mom also woke up from her stupor and approached him with a big smile on her face.

"When did you come back, son?" "Not too long ago, did something happen?" he replied with a shrug.

"Oh my! Is that obvious!" She seemed to be getting more elated as the conversation continued.

"Hehe~ well you see, when a male and female love each other, they pray to god and get a baby, that is how we got you!" She spoke with such confidence that eren would have believed her if he had been an actual kid.

"Okay?" He agreed to her words, not wishing to spoil her mood.

"You dad and I love each other a lot so we will soon be getting a second one."

Although not surprised, eren still tried his best to seem amazed. He had sensed the fetus thanks to his observation haki.

"Wow, that's amazing! I'm going to be a brother!"

The childish behavior soon came to a halt as he sensed the signs of distress from his mother. She seemed to fidget with her fingers while avoiding eye contact with him as if she was guilty of something.

Before he could ask her any further questions, his father stepped in between them to block his view. "It's okay dear, I'll do the rest." He was convincing her while slowly leading her towards their bedroom all while keeping eren away from her view.

After a few minutes, he came back to see eren looking straight at him as if accusing him of something. "You drugged her?"

It was more of a statement rather than a question.

"Not quite. Just slowly making her forget about you." He answered while taking out a notebook and began scribbling on it. "The drug I administered will make her feel euphoric, while 'eren' would make sure to make her forget about you.

"Isn't that risky to the baby?" Eren asked almost as if expecting this to happen.

"The baby is just a faulty clone of mine, it has no life, just a lump of flesh. But it will be problematic if you keep appearing in front of her, so do us a favor and leave."

The furrowing of Eren's brows deepened as he tried to understand the situation.

"How did you even make a clone?" The feats his father boasted of, are too advanced for his time. He neither has the knowledge nor the tools to accomplish this yet the results speak for themselves.

"It's not exactly a clone, just my spinal fluid tampered by Ymir ."

"…What."

"Just pack up and leave. I already talked with Ackerman, they offered me a good sum of money for giving you up. The carriage is waiting outside."

At this point, eren realized that he was being sold by the man he saw as a father figure. He could've just refused to cooperate with him and face no consequences, but a small part of him wished to see it to the end.

Just how far would he go?

How much hate does his father harbor for him?

What else would he do?

The curiosity to see the absolute limit of a man driven to the edge was something he subconsciously wished to see. The evil a man can have within him, to resort to slavery.

Thus, he agreed. There was honestly no drawback to this except for the label of a slave which is pretty useless to him. He firmly believed that he was the strongest person in this world.

After packing up his clothes in a bag, and putting on a cloth over his eyes, he was carried by two burly men to the Ackerman's house.

'I wonder how Mikasa would act after she learns of this.'