Leo Cross was momentarily speechless.

Professor, you sound like you’re speaking from experience, he thought.

Emphasizing women specifically… looks like you’ve learned that lesson the hard

way.

“Don’t let your imagination run wild,” Professor Yates said. “Women have made phenomenal contributions to medicine. That pathetic male chauvinism of yours has no place here.”

“Stop looking down on people.”

Leo, though his thoughts were spot on, tried to defend himself. “I wasn’t looking down on anyone, Professor.”

Yates didn’t say another word.

He had never noticed this flaw in his student before, but encountering Claire today had brought it glaringly into the light.

Disrespecting female doctors only proved how ignorant Leo was of the brilliant women leading their field.

If he didn’t check his ego, it would eventually destroy his career.

For the first time, Yates felt a profound sense of disappointment in his student.

He used to think the young man was driven, ambitious, and passionate about medicine-destined for greatness.

Now, he wasn’t so sure.

“The surgery was a success!”

Vice President Finn and Claire walked out of the operating room together.

Both were utterly exhausted.

The procedure hadn’t dragged on for hours, but the sheer complexity of it had been grueling.

The branch had impaled the boy in the absolute worst possible spot.

One wrong move, and Hudson Carter would have lost his manhood forever, his future completely altered.

He was dangerously close to becoming a tragic medical anomaly in Solenia. Thankfully, he was still whole.

Such injuries weren’t completely unheard of in medical literature, but they were incredibly rare in everyday life.

He was likely the only student at The Cabinda University dealing with this particular trauma.

The boy was still unconscious; whether he could handle the psychological aftermath when he woke up was another story.

He was definitely out of the military training program, and a disciplinary warning was inevitable.

Facing the agonizing threat to his masculinity on top of that-who knew if he had the mental fortitude to push through?

“Congratulations, Finn. Beautiful work in there,” Yates said, stepping up to greet

him.

Though visibly drained, Finn’s eyes shone with sharp vitality. “I can’t take all the credit for this one.”

“If it weren’t for Claire’s intervention, this wouldn’t have gone nearly as well.”

Without her stabilizing the hemorrhage while they extracted the branch, things could have gone south instantly.

Finn’s entire demeanor toward Claire had shifted.

He no longer addressed her as a mere student; he spoke to her as a peer.

It was the ultimate validation.

“Claire truly is remarkable.” They had

hed the surgical feed and see

exactly what she accomplished in that operating room.

The skeptics who had relentlessly questioned Claire during the consultation were now dead silent.

Knowing she was a student at The Cabinda University, Yates couldn’t stop praising her.

He practically beamed with institutional pride.

Earning the respect of these seasoned medical titans was no small feat for a student.

Especially considering the arrogant specialists who had running feuds with Yates were now publicly eating their words.

Yates had been the one fiercely defending Claire in the consultation room.

The two experts who had openly scoffed at Traditional Medicine were now forced to swallow their pride.

They had absolutely nothing to say.

“The girl has a gift, I’ll give her that.

But being a prodigy with

acupuncture needles doesn’t mean

she excels in everything el

“Traditional Medicine takes a

lifetime to master. Most

practitioners spend decades just learning how to read a pulsed

properly.

“I still stand by my point. Its role in critical trauma is limited. It’s better suited for chronic conditions.”

One of the specialists finally broke the silence.

He admired Claire’s clinical save, but it wasn’t enough to completely overturn his prejudice against her discipline.

“Don’t let it go to your head, kid. I hear you’re a freshman at The Cabinda University. You still have a long way to go.”

Though Yates was fiercely protective of his own, he nodded in agreement with the specialist’s underlying advice.