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[h3][u][color=6ecff6]Xincai, Henan[/color][/u][/h3]
[b][i]New Sights[/i][/b]
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	The warm, fruity, pepper-and-vanilla scent of cinnamon swirled with the soft florals and woody musk of agarwood. The incense couldn’t quite cover the horse dung, fire smoke, and other smells, but it made it much easier to ignore them. But the sounds were even harder to filter: people talking, sometimes in raised and angry voices, stubborn mules braying as they hauled creaking carts, and footsteps of a thousand different weights and strides. Rustling clothes, clinking armor, jingling coins…a girlish giggle and squeal, somewhere further down an alleyway. Yi Hyun-Woo felt warmth rise to his face, and turned his focus elsewhere.

	The cobblestones under his feet were mostly even, save for a line he occasionally stepped across that had been worn further down. Wagon tracks. The sheathed tip of his sword absently tapped a pattern across the square bricks, noting the different sounds between fired clay, calcified mortar, and occasionally, simple packed earth. He shifted his weight slightly to one side, and felt the wind ripple against his sleeve as the person he’d sensed passed him. His head tilted to better gauge the sounds in front of him, and he breathed deeply through his nose. Baked goods, fresh fabrics, and occasionally even oiled metal. A marketplace.

	Hyun-Woo opened his eyes for the second time since arriving in Xincai. The second time, because the first time at the gate had nearly overwhelmed him. Even though his sight had been restored, and he had traveled quite far by this point…it still felt like his mind could barely process everything at once. Especially in a place as bustling as the Middle Kingdom–the bright colors of silks, the artistry of buildings and banners, and the made-up faces of beautiful women, all of it and a thousand other things made him feel as if he were catching fever right behind his eyes. Perhaps the worst thing to get used to–especially once he started training–had been what he now knew as [i]depth perception.[/i] Looking at the mountains and rivers of his homeland, and now the ever-grander Middle Plains, had been enough to bring him to tears. When he had embarked on this quest, riding across the ocean from Jeju-Do to Shanghai had nearly sent him into shock. And the trip overland afterward had been a new surprise every step of the way.

	The world was so [i]big[/i] now, compared to the dark void he had once wandered. Sometimes, it was still easier to travel that way…but he had to get used to it. Just like martial arts, he had to train the eyes he had not used for so many years…

	He registered the sound of two bodies colliding, and turned to see a young woman fumbling with a pile of scrolls. A few rough men were moving in the other direction–was she trying to follow them? Or had they pushed her? No, wait, that man hurrying in the other direction, maybe that was what he’d sensed?

	Hyun-Woo heard someone snicker. He closed his eyes and raised his eyebrows as the muscles around his ears twitched.

	[sub]“Is she supposed to be some sort of scribe, or a street urchin?”[/sub][sup] “Stupid woman, out of my way! I’m going to be late…”[/sup][sub] “That’s what you get for associating with thugs like that…”[/sub]

	The young swordsman opened his eyes, and held his sheathed blade against his belt as he walked towards the girl. His boot gently stopped a runaway scroll, and he held out his hand to her.

	“Are you alright, Miss?” he said, in a soft tenor. His pale, amber eyes were wide like a child’s, as he found it much easier to focus on a single person. He wondered what all the different expressions she was making meant–he hadn’t gotten used to navigating by those yet, either. "Did those men do something unchivalrous?"