Spiritual Roots!

Erwin nodded to his son before placing all of the apples on a glass plate and moving the basket off the table.

"Just as I expected! I've only come across a Spirit Apple Tree once, but I haven't even see the fabled golden apples! I've only heard stories about them!" Erwin said while inspecting the apples.

Eren began to sit at one of the chairs, but he forgot about the added strength that came with consuming an apple! When he grabbed the back of the chair to pulled it back a bit, the chair slid across the ground for a few meters.

Everyone turned to look at Eren, who had an awkward expression on his face He completely forgot about the strength benefits of the apples!

Erwin glanced at Eren for a moment and said nothing.

Eren quickly picked up the chair, but it felt as if he was picking up a small pillow! So he had to be careful and learn to control his strength later on.

After finally managing to sit down in the chair and scooting it up to the table, his father asked him another question.

"How do you want to split the apples?" He said. Erwin didn't dare to take control of the situation, since he might come off as greedy and controlling to his wife.

And that'd mean no s**y time for a while!

"Split the azure apples between us siblings first. Then save the golden apples, I don't want to use them. Since our field has been destroyed by the beast tide, this is our only hope! We should sell the apples later on."

Eren explained.

His idea was nothing impressive, but for a child who's never been taught anything about economics, Erwin was incredibly impressed. He didn't think Eren would realize the value of the fields nor the spirit apples!

'I'm glad my son knows the basics!' Erwin thought to himself. He prayed with all his heart that his 9-year-old son Eren wouldn't just gobble all of the apples up.

Even if Eren did that, he wouldn't have been able to stop him since he found the apples himself.

"Alright, great! It seems like you know a thing or two about this stuff, huh? You must've found that old merchant's book in the storage room." Erwin said.

Eren tensed up slightly before relaxing and laughing it off as if it was indeed what he did.

'Thanks for giving me a free alibi!' Eren thought to himself.

The azure apples were divided between the siblings. Each sibling got one, whilst Eren got two apples. As for the golden apples, Erwin took one and saved the rest until they were ready to be sold...

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" Eren was outside play-training when he suddenly heard rustling in the bushes. He got out of his foolish martial arts pose and looked towards the bushes that the sound came from.

A faint silhouette had appeared. Because it was nighttime now, he could barely make out who or what it was.

All Eren knew was that someone had intruded upon his family's territory and he wouldn't allow it. He assumed a battle stance he saw from a movie in his previous life and readied himself to fight.

Surprisingly, the person who came from the bushes was all too familiar! It turned out to be the border count!

Eren immediately got out of his battle stance and watched her closely. Though he couldn't see her face or any other features, he still knew it was her.

"Little, Eren, don't be shy now. Come out!" Faytahlia said in a low voice. She wasn't holding any weapons and was just walking around playfully.

Eren hated the way she acted and didn't want to be anywhere near her.

He tried to slowly back away from her and enter the manor, but the moment he took his eyes off of her, she disappeared and reappeared right in front of him.

He was immediately thrown off guard and almost fell over, but she caught him by the arms and spin him around.

"Little Eren, I see you've gotten stronger. I can feel the presence of mana inside your body despite you not having spiritual roots." She said. Eren became alert when he heard this, suspecting that she may have found something else out.

He could probably come up with a lie as to why there was mana inside his body, but not one about the awakening of his spiritual roots.

Or about where he got those spirit apples from. Faytahlia was far too intelligent for such cheap lies despite her young appearance. She was like an old demon that Eren couldn't get rid of.

He would always stay inside the manor whenever she was around since she always liked to sniff through his life.

"So what? Why do you care?" Eren asked as he gritted his teeth. Faytahlia's expression went from playful to serious and her eyes flashed with a purple light.

"How did you awaken your spiritual roots." She said in a deadpan tone. Her eyes stared into Eren's, not losing focus for even one second.

A chill went down Eren's spine as he heard this. He sorely regretted staying outside until nighttime now.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about! My father said my spiritual roots were unawakened!" Eren feigned ignorance but Faytahlia didn't buy it.

She suddenly moved, pinning Eren against the wall of the manor. She stared right into his eyes as she spoke again.

"Don't play with me boy. Tell me the truth. Now." She said. Her tone didn't sound the least bit threatening, and it instead made Eren feel slightly uncomfortable.

Though her eyes were staring into his, he felt as if she was inspecting his entire body from head to toe.

'What the hell is this old hag doing? Wait... If she's an old hag, wouldn't I be somewhat of an old fogey? W-Wait! That's not the issue here! This woman is looking at me like a wolf staring down its prey!'

"W-What do you really want?!" Eren asked.