III
To Y/N's utter horror, when she managed to find her way to the physician's wing (after realizing she had no idea where it was and practically begged a group of workers who were leaving the dining room to help her), she was introduced the two other apprentices who would be working alongside her.
Motherfucker.
Staring back at her were two red heads who looked way too happy to see her.
"Y/N, what are you doing here?" Leon asked in confusion.
"I'm here for Healer Ellis. What are you guys doing here?" she asked, hoping what she thought was wrong.
"We're here for Healer Ellis too. ARE WE CO-WORKERS???" Leon asked with stars in his eyes seeming way too excited about the idea.
Y/N smiled painfully at him. She had indeed been right. It seemed like her chances at having a peaceful and educational experience in the castle was getting further away from her.
Y/N clapped her hands together sarcastically. "How wonderful."
Walking deeper into the Healer's workspace, she looked around at the rows of shelves filled with various herbs and salves in glass jars.
There were a couple of different plants scattered in the corners of the room, and the place was well-lit from the large window facing the courtyard.
Another shelf was covered with different medical texts and educational posters lined the wall next to it.
In the centre of the room were 4 different tables that glowed in the sunlight, cleaned to perfection.
Their workspace was very much up to par for royalty.
Dropping her bag filled with quills, ink, and parchment on one of the empty tables, Y/N felt her pulse skyrocket from her nerves.
This was it. All the anticipation and nerves were for this moment.
Glancing at the twins who were bouncing on the balls of their feet in what seemed like excitement, Y/N couldn't help but feel a little jealous.
She always found herself feeling anxious and nauseous before examinations or tests and today was going to be exactly that.
She did her best to fill her stomach so she would be energized and ready to take on whatever was thrown her way, but now all she felt was regret as she started to experience nausea and was ready to throw everything up on the table.
Focusing on her breathing to get her nerves under control, she failed to notice when Healer Ellis walked in and stood at the front of the room. It was only after the incessant talking from the twins ceased that Y/N raised her head to see why.
Healer Ellis clasped her hands together and smiled at them all.
"I'm glad to see I chose a punctual bunch. I hope you all have been settling in well. I'm going to try to keep today rather light. While I've had a chance to look over your past test scores, I think it's important to recognize that theory will only get you so far.
Your textbook won't be there to help you when there's any emergency. So, for today you're all going to be given medical emergency scenarios with a list of symptoms and it's your job to come up with a diagnosis and plan of action on what to do to treat it.
After that you'll be given a task as a group to work on to see how well you can work with others in the field. Any questions?"
They all shook their heads and Healer Ellis smiled. Passing out sheets of paper and a quill to Leon since he forgot to bring his own supplies, she clapped her hands. "You may begin."
——— ??ˋ ? ?ˊ? ———
If looks could kill, Y/N would be dead right now.
After having splashed freezing cold water onto her face, she barely felt more awake than before.
Work had been fine. The scenarios she was given were only somewhat challenging and she was able to come up with an appropriate course of action for every single one.
What bothered her was how long it took her to get there.
The twins, to her surprise, were incredibly fast workers and finished in record time.
She felt that spike of anxiety when they handed Healer Ellis their work and she smiled in approval at them.
The twins had asked her if she wanted to join them for lunch after, but she had declined and rushed to the washroom to calm herself down and get a grip.
She slapped her cheeks with both hands to snap herself out of her daydreams.
She wasn't going to let her impostor syndrome get to her.
Healer Ellis had chosen her; she was meant to be here.
Stepping outside of the washroom and heading back to the Physician's Wing, Y/N stopped when a door flew open in front of her and a whole bunch of men started pouring out.
Y/N jumped in surprise after realizing half of them seemed to be missing shirts (it didn't help that they were all physically fit) and were talking loudly amongst themselves.
Trying to avoid the onslaught of them, she ended up almost running full force into someone, skidding to a stop, and throwing her hands up to protect herself.
Turning her head upwards to see who she almost bumped into, she was pleasantly surprised when she recognized the face looking down at her.
Kent.
She saw the look of recognition that flashed across his face but before he could say anything, a voice called out. "You."
Y/N turned to the voice and was face-to-face with the one person she wished she didn't have to see. Prince Lennox. A pit formed in her stomach.
He approached her from behind Kent with an amused look on his face. For the second time, he assessed what she was wearing and scoffed at her uniform. "You're the new Healer?"
Y/N felt her face warm up from anger. The audacity of this man checking her out clear as day. His gaze made her skin crawl. "Is that surprising?" she asked with as much respect as she could muster (which wasn't very much).
He crossed his arms across his chest. "It is if you're the Healer from Lenor Vale I've heard so much about. Your kind aren't exactly known for their intelligence and being civilized. And from what I've seen, the rumours are true at least for the latter. The former has yet to be tested."
Kent looked from Lennox to Y/N in shock. Why was he being so rude to her?
Y/N knew why. Because she hadn't immediately turned to a puddle at his feet and begged for forgiveness.
She hadn't given him the ego boost he so desperately needed and that was the greatest offence she could have committed against him.
Ignoring and storming past him also probably didn't do her any favours.
She had to bite her tongue to prevent herself from clapping back at his remark about her people.
"Don't forget to remind anyone who decides to mess with you that you're Lenor proud and you have a talent for accidentally punching people in the face."
She felt her heart break a little thinking back to what her father had told her before she left. How would he feel seeing her right now? Would he think she was making the right decision, or would he want her to defend her heritage and where she grew up?
"What? Got nothing to say to that? I guess your brains are as empty as your pockets. I've never understood why people like you were ever given the chance to work in places like these, you obviously don't belong here.
You don't know the first thing about etiquette and showing respect to the people above you."
he continued after realizing she refused to respond.
A bunch of the guards began to take notice of what was going on and started quieting down their conversations.
Y/N could feel a bunch of more eyes on her.
People stopped in their tracks and put their attention on the two of them.
Y/N could feel herself beginning to spiral.
From the stress of starting her new life here, to her impostor syndrome getting to her and now this, Y/N could confidently say she had never experienced a day worse than this.
A ringing began in her ear and the rest of the world became muffled.
She could see Lennox's mouth moving, likely berating her over nothing, and making assumptions about her because of her background but she could hear none of it.
She saw Kent putting his hand on his shoulder to try and calm him down or lead him away, but it wasn't working.
A dull ache started to form in the back of her head.
She just wanted this all to stop. She wanted him to stop. If only for a second, she wanted to release all her pent-up stress and anger at the world. Her eyes flashed around to the dozens of faces staring at her and she clenched her fist.
——— ??ˋ ? ?ˊ? ———
For a split second, Y/N's world had turned black. But when she came to, she felt a dull pain in her knuckles as she was looking down at Lennox, who was on the floor, clutching his cheek in pain.
Well fu-
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