The Legendary Healer

The wagon jolted against the street, and Kevin sat with his hands bound tightly behind his back, his heart throbbing against his chest ribs.

The crowd lined both sides of the street, their faces twisted with pure hatred as they screamed at him.

 Rotten fruits and stones flew through the air, crashing against the wooden bars of his cage.

"Traitor!"

"Kill the bastard!" 

"He should rot in the deepest cell!"

Kevin's teeth gnashed against each other and his jaw tightened. A rush of adrenaline poured throughout his body, but his eyes stayed cold as stared into every single face that wanted him dead.

However, what caught his eyes and squeezed his chest wasn't the angry mob.

It was her, the girl that claimed he loved him and would do anything for him, Chloe. The girl that he had given up everything for just to make sure that she was happy, even if it meant that his own happiness was trashed into a bin.

Now, she stood at the edge of the crowd, wrapped tightly in someone else's arms, watching him with a satisfied smirk on her lips. She caught his gaze and held it, like she had been waiting for exactly this moment.

Kevin's hands clenched tightly, and his gaze turned icy.

She was wearing the dress he had bought for her just weeks ago.

Dark memories rushed into his mind, and his chest felt like something had torn through it.

While they cursed him, those same mouths sang praises of another man in the exact same breath.

"Lord Elias is our god sent!"

"He rescued the city from its fall! He built the layouts and made sure everything was fine!"

"If not for Elias, we would all be dead!"

"Bless our savior!"

Kevin could not help the scoff that came off his lips.

Everything they enjoyed, every comfort and security they lived by, had come from him!

He was the one who spent sleepless nights hunched over his desk, drawing formation after formation until his eyes burned and his hands shook.

The medicines that saved their lives when the cold plagues ravaged through the city, it was Kevin that made.

They all owed their lives to Kevin, the one that they mocked.

He was a commoner from the slums. He had no status, no money, and the city council would never even look at a blueprint and remedies drawn by someone like him.

That was why he gave the research to Elias.

"Kevin, you're the best we have," Elias had said back then, his hand patting Kevin's shoulder like a brother. "The council doesn't listen to you because you don't know how to talk to them. Let me handle the front. You do the work, and I'll be your voice. We'll save this city by working together.”

Back then, Kevin's heart had swelled with hope. Back then, he had believed those words.

Like a fool, Kevin had handed over every plan, every design, every antidote. His life's work, given freely because Elias was supposed to be his best friend.

"Just let me put my name on it too," Elias had added with that friendly smile. "If the people see me attached, the council will approve it faster. It's all for the city, Kevin."

And for months, it worked. The walls were reinforced using Kevin's formations. And people were healed from the plagues. 

But every time the people cheered, it was never Kevin's name on their lips.

It was always Elias.

Kevin had told himself it didn't matter. As long as people lived, as long as the city survived, it didn't matter who got the credit.

Until the day he asked for something back.

"Elias, I need my initial research files," Kevin had said, exhaustion weighing on his shoulders. "I want to improve the vaccines we just created. I think I can make it better."

Elias had looked at him strangely.

"Those? I already submitted them as final. You know how the council is."

"I still need the copies. They were mine in the first place, remember?"

Elias's smile had faltered for just a moment and then he smiled back, stating that he would retrieve it from the council and hand it over to him.

Two days later, the city guards broke into Kevin's home.

They turned his entire place upside down, threw his books, smashed his tools, ripped his notes. And somehow, inside his locked drawer, they "found" letters.

They had words of treason arched on them, having his hand writing, and even though they had been forged, nobody would listen to a slum kid who was only trying to help the world with his special abilities over their hero, Elias.

And the one who pointed them towards that drawer with innocent, trembling hands was Chloe, his fiancée.

"Kevin... I didn't want to believe it..." she had whispered with tears in her eyes. "But he told me you were planning to destroy the city if they didn't give you credit. I tried to stop you... I really did..."

At the time, Kevin had thought those tears were real.

Right now, as he watched her in someone else's arms with that smirk on her lips, he knew better.

She had been sleeping with Elias behind his back. They no longer had use for him, so they framed him to silence him forever.

The wagon jerked to a halt at the city square.

The guards dragged him out and dropped him roughly to the ground. His knees hit the rocky road hard, but Kevin pushed himself up without a word. His back stayed straight, staring deep into Elias eyes until they burned.

The crowd surged forward, hungry for Kevin's blood.

Then Elias stepped forward from the platform. He walked towards Kevin slowly, his face arranged into a pained expression.

"Kevin," Elias called, loud enough for all to hear. "Look at what you have done to yourself."

Kevin raised a brow.

"Confess your crimes," Elias continued, his voice dripping with fake regret. "After all, we are still friends. If you confess, you could be forgiven and made to live a modest life somewhere far away. I will personally appeal to the council for mercy."

“Yes, that is what you should do Elias!” Jessica added, she wasn't even trying to hide the sinister smirk arched into her face.

The crowd started murmuring.

"Even after all that, Lord Elias still wants to save him..."

"Our god sent leader is really compassionate..."

A bitter laughter rose from Kevin's pain.

He knew that it was a lie. There was no way that he would be allowed to live, not after everything that he knew.

The moment he confessed, he was a dead man.

There was no need to cry or act sorrowful. He would do what he wanted to do anyway.

"A modest life?" Kevin's voice was flat, laced with sarcasm. "If you are waiting for me to get on my knees and beg, then you would be better off preparing my casket already!"

The instant those words left his mouth, the crowd exploded.

"How ungrateful!"

"Lord Elias offers him mercy and he spits on it!"

"He should be punished immediately!"

"Kill him now!"

Their hatred clawed at him but Kevin's smirk didn't move. His eyes stayed on Elias with a cold tint.

Elias sighed heavily, shaking his head like he was truly disappointed. 

"I tried," Elias said, loud enough for everyone, his face filled with fake sorrow. "I really did. Even after his betrayal, I wanted him to live. But he chose this path."

The crowd howled even more.

"Lord Elias is too kind!"

"He always thinks about others!"

"Our god sent leader!"

However, Kevin could clearly see the dark smirk that tried to hide at the corner of Elias's lips.

Elias turned back to the guards.

"Take him away for due process," he ordered in a steady voice.

The crowd cheered loudly.

"Yes! Let justice be served!"

"Lord Elias is fair to the very end!"

As the guards grabbed Kevin's arms and dragged him away from the center of the square, away from the crowd, Elias stepped closer. His expression stayed soft for the people watching, but his eyes turned hard and cold.

He leaned in slightly, his voice dropping so low only the guards and Kevin could hear.

"Kill him before dawn, do it discreetly, I don'tcare who goes down with him. Infact, kill every prisoner in the same cell as him," Elias whispered. "Make it look like an accident in the cells."