National Asset: The Marvelous Tyler Wood

Chapter 6

Hearing what his wife father just said.

Tyler couldn't help but shake his head, everything was making sense now, just because they heard about his disqualification their attitude towards him had changed.

However he couldn't help but wonder how could they possibly know about his disqualification? That had happened deep in the supreme Forest, far from any prying eyes.

Five apprentices had been chosen that day - he remembered their faces clearly.

At that moment understanding began to dawn on him, someone must have left the Forest early after he was disqualified also, and that person had run back to Dapplewood, spreading news of his failure to cover their own shame.

At that moment a knowing smile slowly spread across Tyler's weathered face, his eyes, bright and clear despite the insulting words said to him.

“You're right,”

Tyler said, his voice carrying a quiet confidence that made his wife's parents exchange nervous glances. “The divine doctor did disqualify me.”

At that moment he straightened his shoulders, standing taller.

“But I stayed in the supreme Forrest,” he continued

“I learned medicine my own way. Five years of real training on my own.”

His eyes locked onto his wife's father's face, and something in that steady gaze made the older man step back slightly.

He didn't want Tyler to bite him, without being told he could tell he must have some diseases in him, and he doesn't want to contact any.

“Don't worry about the divine doctor,” he said, his voice growing stronger with each word.

“He can't compare to what I've become. Now that I'm back, I'll take all of you to glory.”

At that moment his wife family couldn't hold back their laughter anymore, they started laughing.

However Tyler was still calm under their mockery, as he watched his wife's parents double over with mocking amusement.

Their faces turned red, tears streaming down their cheeks and ruining their perfect makeup. Then his wife's mother's carefully styled hair came loose as she threw her head back, her diamond necklace catching the sunlight with each shake of laughter.

Luke had to brace himself against the garden wall, his expensive silk shirt wrinkling as his body convulsed with harsh laughter.

His perfectly polished shoes scuffed against the stone path as he struggled to stay upright.

“You actually expect us to believe this nonsense?” his wife's father wheezed between bursts of laughter. as he wiped tears from his eyes.

“A homeless beggar surviving in the supreme Forest? not just a day but five years, and now he's claiming to be stronger then his master that rejected him.” Each word dripped with contempt.

His wife's mother pressed her manicured hand to her chest, gasping for air between laughs.

“This is simply too much!”

she managed to say, her perfectly painted lips quivering with amusement.

“Everyone knows about the Forest's dangers!”

“Remember Master Kelly?” Luke sneered, straightening his designer watch.

“Strongest healer in three provinces, dead in three days when he tried to do it alone!”

Then his eyes raked over Tyler's ragged appearance with more disgust.

“But this filthy beggar wants us to believe he lasted five years on his own, without the supervision of Master George?”

Then Tyler wife's father stepped closer.

Again the older man's nose wrinkled at Tyler's forest smell, and his lip curled in revulsion.

“You must have hit your head, you poor fool,” he said, adjusting his gold cufflinks again.

“Or maybe...” he leaned forward, then jerked back from the smell, “you're just drunk.”

At that moment his wife's mother waved her hand dismissively.

Her face twisted into an elegant sneer as she looked at Tyler's bare, mud-caked feet.

“The poor houses in the poor district are always full of delusional beggars like this one,” she said, her voice dripping with disdain.

“Each one claiming to be someone special.”

However Tyler stood straight despite their mocking laughter.

 His torn clothes and bare feet might look pitiful, because in the supreme Forrest, there wasn't water or rain fall, and he couldn't wash up, but his medical skill and martial art kept his body in good condition.

 “Don't worry about believing me, I wouldn't force anyone, you can believe what you want.”