They had barely walked far enough to escape the crowd that the voice of a young man stopped them. Arthur tried to glance behind him but couldn’t properly see what was going on. The first tall and strong man, the one that had questioned him earlier, seemed to be the one walking over the young man who had called out to them. Arthur tried his best to listen to their conversation but still couldn’t, sadly, understand anything.

“I had seen a crowd and heard quite a ruckus. Although I couldn’t get close enough, I wondered what could be the current situation that you, city guards, had to intervene? Is the young man you are escorting a bandit?” asked the young man

“Sir, we apologize if we have in any way disturbed you. Rest assured, no harm was done but we do not know this...this strange man’s identity. We suspect that he might be from a foreign troupe, Sir.”

“...He sure doesn’t look like a dangerous individual to me.”

The young man walked in front of the city guards, to face Arthur. This man, he was different. Anybody could tell from the way he was holding himself up straight to the way he was dressed. To Arthur, it was the same feeling as meeting another playable character for the first time in a RPG, while the others were like NPCs (1) set to feed the game’s plot. Surely, this man must be one of the main actors of the movie, or whatever they were filming here.

The man’s face was completely hidden from Arthur’s view—half of his face hidden under a large bamboo hat tied to his chin by two black strings while the other half was hidden with an opened wooden fan held to his mouth in wonder. The robes he was wearing were still quite simple compared to what Arthur was used to seeing in fiction, but still looked much fancier than the ones he had seen previously. They were long, flowy robes with large sleeves, each one gracefully layered. His outer garment was a cross-collared robe (2), tastefully colored in a light jade green and fading into a gradient of blueish gray. The hems and collar were beautifully embroidered with silver thread while the almost see-through fabric shimmered with the sunlight. His inner garments, including his silky pants, were all silver-colored. Even his shoes were embellished with silver embroideries! He was a rich man, for sure!

“Gentleman, may I know your name?” asked the young distinguished man in a calm voice.

“Pham Hai Long.” Arthur was quite proud of him as he understood the question. He also understood the next one.

“Where do you come from?”

“San Diego, but...hotel in Hanoi!” Somehow, he couldn’t find the words to explain that he had lost his way. That he might be a tourist but he didn’t intend to end up here to begin with and just wants to go back to his hotel, since his friends might be waiting for him. The young man stayed silent for a short moment before speaking again.

“You’re not from here. But you sure do look confused. I meant...how did you arrive here?”

Arthur stared at him. His head was blank, he didn’t understand what he wanted to know and he was too tired to try a way to communicate so he just froze up and simply said “do not understand”.

That’s when the young man shifted his hat and closed his fan, revealing his face. He was quite handsome, or maybe handsome wasn’t the right word but his smile had a unique charm to it. He didn’t have any striking feature but he was typically the type of guy one would call friendly-looking. His skin was pretty pale so the moles on his face stood out. If Arthur had to describe him, he’d say he looked like a willow tree. Perhaps it was the way his clothes swayed each time the wind blew or the way his eyes were shaped like a curved leaf. He looked young but serene.

The man moved his sleeves, then pointed to Arthur with the tip of his closed fan before switching its direction towards the well. He looked once more at Arthur and repeated those moves, asking him “how”.

“Rain! I fell. Don’t know where.”

“Where?”

“Where here is.”

The man stood in front of him, seemingly confused. “But there was no rain last night nor this morning.” He then moved back to the previous city guard, discussing of something Arthur couldn’t quite hear properly. It was fairly brief but it seemed like it was enough to clear the misunderstanding. Hopefully.

“Come with me. I will be the one taking care of you until we can figure this out. I got their permission.” Arthur followed him. He didn’t understand what was all of this about it was definitely better than being forcefully dragged away to who-knows-where.

Arthur was still under shock, however. Partly because of the whole situation but also because the whole neighborhood he was walking though looked so real—it looked like he had stepped into another era! It was either a high-budget production or there was a historical area he didn’t know of. In any way, this was quite a splendid view! Everyone also looked so perfectly on-theme, despite the number of people there were. Even the inn they had entered looked historically-appropriate!

The immersion is even better than at D*sney’s!

The two of them sat at a table, led by a waitress. The young man ordered a few items before turning back to Arthur and gave him a small smile.

“You must be hungry. I am sorry I didn’t introduce myself earlier but my name is Ly Duy Anh.” Not only did he look like a noble man when sitting down across the table, even the way he spoke was graceful! It was too fancy! Arthur couldn’t quite pinpoint what exactly was, but it felt like so. Embarrassed by his current—muddy—appearance, he only shyly repeated the other man’s name: Ly Duy Anh.

“You do not seem to remember what had happened to you and I have not seen anyone quite dressed like you either. Because we do not know who you are nor where you come from, please understand that the guards only acted in fear for our safety.” At this point, there wasn’t much Arthur could do but listen and nod. Yes, he might be Vietnamese but he wasn’t fluent in the language! He had no idea what Duy Anh had just said! Never in his life had he been this flustered while communicating with others. It wasn’t exactly because he couldn’t speak the language but rather because it sounded like something he should understand but couldn’t. It sounded right but why couldn’t he understand the meaning of it?

Arthur snapped out of his thoughts when Duy Anh cleared his throat.

“Does it hurt?” Duy Anh pointed at his forehead. Arthur stared for a bit before realizing Duy Anh was talking about him, him who had fallen into a well just a moment ago. Was he hurt? He couldn’t tell. Maybe because his whole body actually felt off.

“No.” Arthur said, his voice more shaky than he wished it sounded. Duy Anh gave him a slightly worried look. “Earlier, you couldn’t walk straight either. Did you perhaps injure your leg?” Seeing that Arthur was just blankly staring at him, he cleared his throat once more and put his fan down on the table. “Never mind.”

1.RPG: role-playing game, NPC: non-playable character. In other words, other people didn’t look relevant or special

2. Slight spoiler if you search it up but characters are all wearing the áo giao lĩnh. It was one of the most common types of dress before Nguyen dynasty