The practical exam was not about seeing patients directly, but identifying and explaining the uses of medicinal ingredients in front of the examiner.

It was a simple test where one only needed to get five out of ten questions correct. Unlike the written exam, candidates entered the exam room one by one, and the results were determined on the spot.

“Count Hydrange, it’s your turn.”

Once again, Viscount Memelt guided me.

Entering the practical exam room, I saw trays of medicinal ingredients placed on a large circular table, numbered in order.

“Tsk!”

I clicked my tongue involuntarily. The storage condition of the prepared ingredients was terrible.

There were ingredients that had turned white from sun exposure when they shouldn’t have been stored in sunlight, and some that had dried up and hardened like wood due to poor moisture management. There were even moldy ingredients.

Even though these weren’t for actual patients but for the exam, the management was awful.

‘How can they evaluate anyone with ingredients stored like this?’

Regardless of the ingredients’ condition, the exam soon began. It was a simple format where the examiner would call out a number, and I had to answer with the name and use of the ingredient.

With few questions and easy content, it ended quickly.

I was confident I had answered all questions correctly.

“You got four out of ten correct. Unfortunately, you’ve failed.”

But the words from the bespectacled examiner’s mouth were completely different from what I expected.

“What? How many out of how many are correct?”

He repeated with a face of dealing with a troublemaker. But I still couldn’t understand. Four out of ten correct?

“I think there’s been a mistake in grading.”

At my words, the examiner snorted with an incredulous expression.

“Not considering that you didn’t study properly… It was a mistake to let someone unqualified take the test in the first place. What business does a woman have taking an exam?”

He raised his voice, seemingly intending for me to hear his criticism. It seemed he was displeased with my very presence at this exam. He was treating me like someone who couldn’t accept the results.

I was angry. Because I hadn’t made any mistakes. I hadn’t slipped up. The questions weren’t even difficult enough to make mistakes on.

“I’d like to check the answer sheet.”

“Hah! The audacity! If you insist, see for yourself how nonsensical your answers were…”

He handed me the answer sheet. It was a paper with numbers along with the names and uses of the medicinal ingredients.

“What’s all this commotion about?”

Someone entered the exam room. It was an old man with a long white beard, and as soon as the bespectacled examiner saw him, he bowed deeply in greeting.

“Count Ferman. This woman…”

The examiner told him that I had ruined the exam and was now stubbornly refusing to accept it.

Ferman was a figure I knew about.

Grandfather occasionally talked about him, saying he was so lazy that it was incomprehensible why he was still working at the imperial palace.

But it wasn’t that he lacked skills entirely. If he did, he couldn’t have become the representative therapist of the imperial family in the first place.

It was hard to understand how someone so lazy could be a skilled therapist.

He always said his dream was to retire early and live a life without having to go to work, but contrary to someone who wished for early retirement, he was still an imperial therapist.

“Count Ferman, I believe there’s an error in the therapist license exam here.”

Ferman stroked his well-groomed beard and asked me with an interested expression.

“What seems to be the problem?”

“See for yourself.”

I handed him the answer sheet that the examiners had given me.

After checking the answer sheet, he looked at me with a puzzled expression. His attitude suggested there was no problem with the answers.

“Don’t just look at the answer sheet, compare it directly with the ingredients.”

At those words, he examined the ingredients and the answer sheet alternately.

Frustrated by his extremely slow pace, I stepped in to explain directly.

“Here, it’s written as Luifeni on the answer sheet. As you know, this isn’t Luifeni but Mandroagen. While Luifeni and Mandroagen are similar-looking plant roots, they can be confused…”

I pointed to the middle part of the root.

“As you can see, this root is swollen at each joint as if bearing eggs. This is a characteristic of Mandroagen.”

Along with Ferman, the examiner who had declared me failed also craned his neck to examine the root on the tray.

“Of course, if it had been stored properly, it would have had a minty fragrance, but that’s all evaporated due to poor storage. This ingredient should be kept in a cool, shaded place in a box sealed with candle wax to prevent air from entering, but it’s just been left out.”

I didn’t forget to point out the storage issue. The bespectacled examiner’s face crumpled.

I pointed out each incorrectly labeled ingredient, highlighting the errors in their prepared answer sheet.

As I picked out each ingredient, the examiner looked anxiously at Ferman, not knowing what to do, while Ferman seemed intrigued.

After pointing out all the ingredients on the table, Ferman smiled. For some reason, he seemed satisfied.

He stared at me uncomfortably with eyes sparkling as if he had discovered a treasure.

It was certainly not pleasant to receive such a greedy look from an old man.

“There seems to have been a small mistake.”

“How is this a small mistake? Don’t tell me that Count Ferman, the therapist responsible for the imperial palace, is so foolish as to not realize how threatening it can be to a patient’s life when a therapist can’t properly distinguish medicinal ingredients.”

At my words of reproach, the bespectacled examiner stepped forward to criticize me.

“Miss Claire. Isn’t that too disrespectful to Count Ferman, regardless of the situation?”

I glared at him.

Putting aside the rudeness of calling me Miss Claire instead of Countess Hydrange, how dare he criticize my attitude when he couldn’t even properly store or distinguish medicinal ingredients.

“I think it’s you who’s being too much right now, not me. How shameless to give out quack licenses in an exam hall that’s supposed to issue therapist licenses.”

Seemingly offended by my words, he spoke with his chin trembling.

“How can you say such… Quack licenses!”

“Yes, quack licenses. Don’t you think about the patients who will suffer more from taking medicine prescribed by therapists who misidentify these ingredients?”

“Even if there are side effects, it would only be as mild as an upset stomach. Aren’t your words too harsh?”

Of course, most of the ingredients featured in the exam didn’t have severe toxicity.

Even if misused, they would likely only cause mild side effects like stomach aches or rashes.

But those mild side effects could be fatal depending on the patient’s condition.

“Just an upset stomach, you say?”

I picked up one of the ingredients and shoved it in his face.

“What do you think would happen if someone mistook this for Kukinhane, which helps with dehydration symptoms, and gave it to a dehydrated person? As you said, it would just cause an upset stomach and diarrhea. But have you thought about what happens when you add diarrhea to a dehydrated patient?”

“…”

“You know how a patient’s condition can worsen if dehydration accelerates, right? In severe cases, they might hallucinate or have seizures. The worst case is death. And you call this just an upset stomach?”

“…”

The exam room fell silent at my rebuke. It seemed he had never considered that a therapist’s incorrect treatment could put a patient in serious danger.

Ferman sighed deeply and said,

“What can we do when only fools come?”

I was angered by Ferman speaking as if it wasn’t his responsibility.

“If only fools come, shouldn’t you either stop giving out therapist licenses, or properly teach these fools so they can care for patients? Are you just sitting around waiting for genius therapists to fall from the sky?”

At those words, Ferman nodded with a smile as if agreeing.

“Yes, yes. You’re absolutely right. I’ve made the biggest mistake. As you said, I’ve just been sitting around waiting for someone worth training to come along.”

I thought he would argue or make excuses, but surprisingly, he admitted it cleanly. I thought that while he might be irresponsible, at least he knew how to reflect on his mistakes.

But that was my misunderstanding.

“So, how about this? Why don’t you become the imperial therapist after me?”

“Are you cra-”

It wasn’t my voice.

But I too had the word ‘lunatic!’ rising to my throat. I just couldn’t spit it out because I was too dumbfounded.

Even in the face of my and the bespectacled examiner’s shocked expressions, Ferman shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t understand and said,

“Why? You’ve already proven your ability, and I’ve confirmed your heart for patients. Where else could we find someone better than you here?”

His face was full of smiles. It was a smile drunk on the happiness of potentially passing all his burdens to me and leaving right away.

They say when you’re dumbfounded, you’re at a loss for words… I couldn’t respond to his words at all.

“Here you are.”

Someone entered as the door opened.

“Your Highness, the Crown Prince?”

‘Ian?’

At his unexpected appearance, I just blinked and stared at him.

‘His complexion has improved.’

He had looked like a walking corpse at the banquet, but now his color seemed much better. I was inwardly relieved that he seemed to have recovered his health.