The First Legendary Beast Healer

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Before Elias could answer, Tiffine stepped forward, almost grinning from ear to ear. She dipped her forehead until it almost touched the crowd when she was just before Tiffine before glancing a disdain filled look at Elias again. 

“Don’t listen to him Miss Rachael. He is just another wannabe, miss. He knows nothing about medicine and definitely cannot heal the beast.”

She looked towards the guards, expecting them to continue where they had stopped, but neither moved. One still had his hand around Elias’s arm, although his grip had loosened.

“I’ve been trying to get him to leave,” Tiffine continued. “There’s no reason for you to concern yourself with him. We’ll take care of everything.”

Rachael looked past her towards Elias. Her eyes moved from his face to his clothes, lingering on the worn sleeves before returning to his face. Elias waited for her to ask him something, but she remained silent.

He could already see what she was thinking. Anyone who could heal beasts would have people lining up at his door, especially with the illness spreading through the city. Wealthy families had been spending fortunes looking for someone who could help them. 

Most wouldn't even care about the amount that they would have to spend, even if it was half of their fortune because a beast in the city was basically an extension of the person's life. 

Such a person would be a billionaire by now. He certainly wouldn’t look like a man who had just finished cleaning someone else’s beast pen.

Elias glanced down at himself, then back at her. He hadn’t expected to have to prove what he could do with his clothes.

“Miss Brent, he’s been standing here making all sorts of claims,” Tiffine added, moving closer when Rachael didn’t respond. “I’ve already explained the situation to him, but he refuses to understand.”

The nurse beside her quickly came around the counter. She had been staring at Rachael since she arrived, her smile widening when she finally found an opportunity to speak.

“He has nothing, miss. His brother is lying sick in one of the beds, and he can’t even pay the bill. Now he’s claiming he can heal the beast because he wants you to let his brother stay.”

She glanced at Tiffine before looking back at Rachael.

“He’s just trying to get into your head so they won’t be tossed out.”

Elias looked towards her, but she was watching Rachael too closely to notice. She straightened her uniform and waited.

Rachael’s attention returned to Elias. “So you’re the one whose brother is going to be displaced?”

Her voice was quieter than the nurses’, and the pity in her eyes made Elias face churn slightly. 

“Yes, he’s my brother.”

Rachael hesitated, looking towards the corridor before facing him again. Her lips parted, but someone near the counter laughed before she could speak.

“I knew there had to be something behind it. People don’t just wake up and start healing beasts.”

“Perhaps he thinks she’ll let him stay out of pity,” another said.

Tiffine folded her hands in front of her, looking satisfied that the others understood. The nurse beside her nodded as though each comment proved something she had already told them.

Elias kept his eyes on Rachael. Daniel was waiting for him, and these people could spend the rest of the afternoon laughing if they wanted. The only person that mattered in this place was Rachael and she was the only one worth his attention. 

The guard beside him finally let go of his arm. Elias eased it away and waited while Rachael considered him.

“I’m sorry about your brother,” she said. “But you don’t have to make such claims.”

Tiffine immediately nodded. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell him, miss. We understand that he’s desperate, but there are things—”

“First, I don’t want your pity, and I don’t need it.”

Elias was still looking at Rachael, and Tiffine’s words stopped as she realised he wasn’t speaking to her.

“For someone who is so smart, or at least rumoured to be, are you just going to take the public’s opinion without hearing from me? I’m standing right beside you.”

The nurse beside Tiffine stared at him, her smile disappearing. “You should be careful how you speak to—”

Rachael raised a hand, and the woman stopped. For a while, Rachael said nothing. Her lips pressed together as she looked at Elias again, this time holding his gaze.

Rachael pressed her lips together again. Despite the fact that she had a straight spine, a confident look in her eyes and an overbearing aura around her, Elias could easily see that she was fighting hard to make a decision. 

Between the crowd that claims that the man standing before her was absolutely trash, between his own words and possibly risking the life of her beast and her own life if she agreed to allow him touch the creature.  

But the possibility that the beast could have been healed instead of receiving a life long support of care was something that irked her in every wrong way.

Rachael finally coughed the sounds out of her throat while her eyes kept moving over Elias from head to toe.

“It’s difficult to give you the benefit of the doubt,” she finally said.

She glanced towards the people watching them before looking at his clothes again. The nurses had stopped speaking, but both were waiting for her answer.

“No offence, but you must understand how it looks. That saying about not judging a book by its cover is a myth. People judge what they can see. You’re asking me to believe something nobody else has been able to prove.”

Elias glanced towards the beast’s shadow behind her, then returned his attention to her face.

“Someone that claims to be as smart as you appear, that should make a lot of sense to you doesn't it?” She ended, staring right into his eyes.

“That's why I have a proposal.” Elias said and the whole crowd fell into an uproar. 

“Not again. What does he think that he can really offer to Miss Brent.” The whole crowd went up in an uproar throwing insults uppon insults at Elias as the seconds went by but he ignored every single one of them.

“What if I give you evidence, then?” Elias asked.