Nao-Zai stood in front of the low, mahogany table where his uncle was seated on a soft cushion. Despite the heat in the summer, his uncle, who also happened to be the head of the Yomaura Fortress, was decked in silk layers.

"So, Nao," his uncle began, addressing only the first part of his name. It's supposed to be because they're family and they're familiar with each other but it only brought a sense of dread in Nao-Zai's gut. Anything coming out of his uncle's mouth couldn't be pleasant. "You have been requested by a powerful client for an assignment."

Nao-Zai remained still. Those eleven words would have brought a normal warrior to tears but not him. If anything, he would rather be informed who this powerful client was before deciding if he should accept the offer or not.

"Don't worry," his uncle continued, taking a sip from his winkle rose tea. "I already took care of the necessary documents like transfer of liability and the actual acceptance slip. I even put your seal on it."

A million protests and curses flooded Nao-Zai's mind. This vile man—

His uncle clicked his tongue and stroked his thinning beard. "Ah, don't look at me like that, Nao," he said. "The clients preferred to have a fast reply. It would reflect poorly on our clan if you deny or if we took too long to answer. Considered an insult, even."

"Why me?"

The words flew out of Nao-Zai's mouth before he could swallow them, never to be heard again. His uncle studied him starting from his hair pinned up in a bun atop his head to the greaves protecting his shin and his dark, leather boots. "Simple," the fortress leader sniffed and cleared his throat. "You're the best among us."

Nao-Zai blinked. "What?"

"You and your perfect record of completed missions swayed the client into picking you for this important job," his uncle waved his hand in the air. "The cost of being too good at the field, I guess."

"Can I really not know who the client is?" Nao-Zai didn't dare step forward or his uncle would take it as a sign of challenge to his authority. Instead, he studied the brittle paper coating the windows and sliding doors painted with galaxy flowers depicted like they're swaying from their branches with an unseen breeze. Whoever did these, they've got great hands and a huge amount of patience.

His uncle shook his head. "They requested they remain anonymous," he said before popping a piece of rolled fish into his mouth using a pair of chopsticks. "Don't worry, lad. You'll know when you get there. I imagine you'd get a good briefing considering the client's standing."

Standing? That only meant it's one of the ruling clans. Nao-Zai narrowed his eyes at the porcelain vases lining his uncle's room, either propped in shelves or placed haphazardly with a number of items known to either be exotic or stolen from the barracks.

There's a lot of ruling clans that came and went and still maintained a bit of power in the present. That did little to narrow it down. There's the Jungro-Pyeong clan whose last monarch died off dynasties before the Minxiaseng Dynasty. Could it be the Fai-Dongseol Clan? Or the Gong-Saica Clan?

"Go home for tonight, Nao," his uncle's voice speared through Nao-Zai's wandering thoughts. The tone told him it's not worth it to continue trying to find out which clan employed him. "You've got the rest of the night to prepare for your meeting with the client tomorrow."

That fast, huh? This was some client indeed.

Nao-Zai snapped to attention and gave his uncle a rigid salute a soldier would give to his commanding officer. "Yes, sir," he dipped his torso into a bow. "I'll get going..." he drew up and met the man's eyes. "Uncle."

Then, he turned and strode out of the fortress leader's office. The corridors blurred along with his memory as his feet brought him out of the fortress and out into the streets of the Izeryeo Province. He turned back to the fortress' compound, noting the multi-leveled pagodas almost reaching the heavens and the lush moontrees whose leaves sparkled purple against the afternoon sunlight.

A stray but firm breeze kissed his skin tanned from training under the blazing sun since he was fourteen. Nao-Zai ran his tongue over his teeth. It's time to head home, then. Perhaps he'd be able to catch up on some sleep before the summons call for him.

The sun had set by the time he arrived at the familiar streets of his hometown. It's small and rural. It's amazing his mother, born and bred a Xianzhu, was able to stand living in this crowded neighborhood for as long as Nao-Zai lived. Still, if not for his father getting kicked out of the Yomaura Fortress, they wouldn't even need to be here.

With enough savings from his salary, Nao-Zai should be able to buy his family a nice property in the mountains, with a hot spring and good plumbing. Maybe that's why he's been pushing himself to be a good soldier who always completes his assignments. He wanted to be the best because that would qualify him for a raise. And without the raise, he wouldn't get to provide his family a decent house in their lifetime.

"...and the snake princess comes to the rescue. With her jade fangs and incredible speed, she attacks the hunters who dared hurt the priestesses."

Nao-Zai's attention fell on a crowd of people gathered by one of the bridges connecting two masses of land separated by a clear river. The sun had gone down completely so lanterns with their red-orange glow were rampant in their wooden posts, in most of the houses' awnings and doors, and finally, in the hands of a girl with long dark hair seated at the edge of the crowd.

Before he realized it, Nao-Zai had already crossed the street to join the small crowd gathered around something. Or in this case....someone. The story continued and from what he could glean from the context, the protagonist was a princess cursed by a forest spirit to be a snake. Instead of trying to break the curse, she lived in the wild and used her abilities to protect a bunch of priestesses from bad hunters.

Nao-Zai reached the rim of the gathered people and with him standing a head taller than most of them, he saw who was seated in the middle. It was a boy who couldn't have been more than twenty years old judging from his voice and his physique. A woven, triangular hat sat over his head, covering his eyes and huge parts of his hair. In the dark, it's almost impossible to tell if his hair was black or brown. He wore clothes typical of peasants accented by pronged sandals and thick, off-white socks.

In short, this boy was here from distant places. Like all pipers—traveling story-tellers who have turned the artform into a living—he probably came from somewhere and ended up in Izeryeo and in this particular town by accident and would be gone by morning.

"And the forest spirit asked the snake princess if she wanted to break the curse at all," the piper narrated. He waved his hands and a figure resembling a snake folded from paper rose into the air. The breath hitched in Nao-Zai's throat. A piper who could cast magic? That's about as rare as a sunfruit in winter.

The piper flexed his fingers and right before the crowd, the folded paper rearranged itself to resemble what's supposed to be the forest spirit, complete with flowing hair and a resplendent dress. "But the snake princess needed the abilities brought about by the curse to protect her friends," the piper continued. He flexed his fingers again and the paper changed back to the snake figure. "So she begged the forest spirit to make her a snake forever."

The wind shifted enough to shift the hat from the piper's head, giving Nao-Zai a view of the cloth mask tied around his face, covering the lower half of his face and ultimately muffling his voice. Was it normal for pipers to be this secretive of their identity?

"And so, the forest spirit, upon realizing the snake princess had been clever to escape her cruel life and had used her magic to obtain a new purpose, granted the princess her wish," the piper stood up and closed his fists. The paper figures flattened out with not a single crease and dropped into his waiting hands. "And so, our snake princess lived the rest of her days in the wild, saving maidens and children from all kinds of danger the bamboo forest has."

The piper dipped into a bow as the crowd applauded. "The end," he said. "Thank you for coming tonight."

The crowd responded by whipping out their purses with coins jiggling inside. The piper shook his head and put his arms forward. "There's no need for that," he stepped backward and almost fell into the river had not the girl with the lantern caught him by the seams of his loose sleeve.

"Careful," the girl said in a rather flat tone. She set the lantern down and faced the crowd. "You can go home now, all of you. We don't really need anything."

Nao-Zai didn't move from his place until the girl turned to him. He couldn't understand the intensity and the tension flashing in them. He couldn't pinpoint the right color of her eyes, either. "Do you need something?" she asked, moving closer to the piper as if to protect him.

Oh. Nao-Zai glanced down at his soldier's uniform. He must have freaked the girl out. He shook his head. "Great story," he coughed out and turned away before the pair could see the red creeping into his ears.

Home. He should just make it back home. Everything would go back to normal tomorrow. Well...as normal as things in Paekdora Nao-Zai's life could be.