The boy returned to the palace soon enough, changing out of his disguise and setting himself back into girl's dress before letting down his bangs and tying the mask over his eye again.

"Hey, Noo-ri," the door opened suddenly, "we're back!"

A spear was shot at the intruders.

"AAack!" Han-dae squawked, diving to the side while kicking Tae-woo in the knees. Tae-woo yelped, buckling-- and the spear narrowly missed him.

Everyone stared at the weapon that was now embedded into a wall.

Noo-ri straightened himself by his mirror, fixing his mask in the mirror so his bangs were arranged neatly. Then he turned to the crowd.

"Sorry, force of habit," he signed.

"Are you trying to kill us?!" Tae-woo retorted, pointing jarringly at the spear, "that was two inches from my head!"

"Sorry, force of habit," he repeated himself.

Han-dae chuckled nervously, feeling a few years shave off his life. "Where did you even get that spear, anyway? Why is it in your room?"

Noo-ri, finished with his preparations, walked up to the two boys. "Shouldn't let your guard down in enemy territory," he said, "always be prepared to fight."

Tae-woo and Han-dae stared at him.

Noo-ri stared back, not sure why the two looked at him with such incredulous expressions. Did he say something wrong?

"Uhh, ah, right," Han-dae started, turning to Tae-woo, "Ayame said that the signs for 'enemy territory' and 'foreign lands' were interchangeable, right?"

"Ah, that makes more sense," Tae-woo said. He put his hand on Noo-ri's head. "Don't worry! We're in the palace, so we're safe here. You can relax, like you do back at home-- Lord Geun-tae is a trustworthy man, after all."

"There are guards patrolling the grounds, so no one will try anything. They're especially keen on taking care of us from Wind, because Lord Mun-dok is known to be Lord Geun-tae's old drinking buddy. They value our trust a lot."

"Now let's put that spear back wherever it came from and get our dinner, shall we?"

So they tug Noo-ri along the road. The boy's confused-- what's wrong with being on his guard in unfamiliar territory? If you don't sleep with an eye open in someone else's domain, you'd regret it!

With one of his hands in Han-dae's, Noo-ri couldn't find the opportunity to continue arguing about his reasons.

(Then he realized.)

This was normal. The new normal.

The five tribes were in harmony, cooperating and in a very unified alliance, no longer holding any sort of ill will against each other. There's no enemy country attacking them, and any land within their own was a place you could sleep soundly.

There was no reason to be constantly on alert.

This wasn't war.

This was what it truly meant to not be in battle.

(Noo-ri will have to get used to this... this calmness, this feeling of safety...)

(...This time of peace.)

-

-

Lady Yun-ho didn't understand sign language, but she was very eager to talk to Noo-ri about random things.

"That reminds me of a legend in Kouka," she surmised, when Noo-ri managed to explain what he saw in text, "it's a story of the creation of the country."

And Noo-ri straightened with attention.

"I've only heard it in passing when I was visiting the Sky Tribe, but it went like this..." she tried to recall, "there was a red dragon god that loved humans so much, he became one. Then..."

A red dragon god that ruled and came to ruin, betrayed by humans. Then came the four dragon god, who did not want to leave him...

Yes, that is the story. It's the very fantasiacal story he'd experience so many centuries ago, that he never ceased to think was an amazing feat.

So it was just a fable now... makes sense. It's the origin of the country, after all.

Maybe he should read it up. He has a lot more to catch up on than what the Wind Tribe had taught him thus far.

"...the four dragons gave their blood to human warriors, and granted them strength." Yun-ho nursed a cup of tea as Noo-ri poured out another for himself. "They say one of them had claws, and another could soar. Sounds like what you saw, doesn't it?"

Noo-ri nodded, smiling.

It really did.

And that, for some reason, only unsettled him. He put a hand over his chest, frowning.

If the dragons really were still around-- there had to be a reason. There had to be a reason why the dragons' spirit lived on, even so many centuries away.

He looked to the sky and closed his eyes.

(It's a coincidence.)

(What he saw was not Lord Shuten.)

(It's a coincidence, surely.)

-

-

"You're supposed to be my maid, I'm not supposed to go hunting around looking for you."

"Hi, hi."

Noo-ri didn't even look up from his book, he just gestured with his free hand, flipping a page with his other. He was much more interested in his book than anything.

"Are you listening to me? What are you even reading? God, look at this chaos."

There were scrolls spilled all over the place. The library wasn't even that big-- Noo-ri just raided the whole place like he was trying to turn it upside down.

"You're unexpectedly a very messy person," Tae-woo observed.

"I'll put them back when I'm done."

Tae-woo picked up a scroll. Then a codex. He hummed with slight interest.

"I guess it's a little late to say this, but you know how to read, huh?" he said in awe, "even I can't read this much."

In a community where only males learned how to read and write, Noo-ri was an anomaly in both lives. Sang studied in secret, on his own. Noo-ri learned from his mother, because his mother was one of the rare ones that could read.

Lord Abi would always teach him new words, too.

"There's a lot of illustration, so I can get the basic idea even without reading it fully," Noo-ri signed, "it's the history of the country."

"A detailed documentation of wars," Tae-woo recognized the development of weapons and the numbers that indicated dates. He looked at the maid, "why are you reading this?"

Noo-ri smiled sadly.

"There's a lot I have to learn," he signed.

Tae-woo scoffed. "You're a really studious type, eh? If you weren't mute, I'd say you were aiming for a position as a minister."

Noo-ri signed back, "I will take that as a compliment."

Tae-woo sat down beside Noo-ri, hands gliding across a scroll and observing the old map of the kingdom.

"They certainly have older things than the Wind Tribe," Tae-woo noted the position of an X right near Fuuga, marked Hakuryuu. "Better maintained, too."

Noo-ri set a hand on the mark, and his gaze on it was meaningful.

This is Lord Guen's tribe, he thought to himself, he was always one to solidify his roots, but he was never one for sentimental history.

All this was just the bare minimum, and everything important was probably there, where the mark is-- the White Dragon's village.

Lord Abi was always the one that liked to keep things organised. Surely his tribe would have the important information... Lord Shuten's a lost cause, which was why the Wind Tribe didn't have anything beyond the basics.

What about Lord Zeno? He never really liked to read or write... but he was where the palace was. Surely there were plenty of ministers who liked to keep records.

The Water Tribe and the Sky Tribe. That's where he'll find the most information.

None of the Dragons stayed with their tribes in the long term, so he'll have to look out for the White Dragon village or the Blue Dragon village if he could.

Noo-ri began putting the scrolls back, settling on just one codex to study.

"I will ask General Geun-tae if I am permitted to bring this to my room," he signed.

"You could just take it home, you know?" Tae-woo told him, "I'm sure Lord Geun-tae doesn't really read any of them, anyways."

Noo-ri pondered on that.

"I think I'll ask Lord Chul-rang instead."

(Noo-ri has given up on the future of the Earth Tribe. Chul-rang must be so tired, he's carrying this entire country because the general is a doofus.)