Shortly thereafter Hugh found himself out of the mansion with twin reptillian boys hanging off him and another shopping list in hand.

What happened was that he thought to talk to Ruth, but Ginny appeared and handed him the shopping list, some money, and the twins. “Miss Sarah says to go and get whatever is on that list with Gani and Bayani. No excuses!” her bright voice contradicted the dangerous tone Sarah probably used at the last part.

Hugh made sure the twins wore their coats despite their protests - "It chafes on our scales!" "But it's better than freezing right?" "Yes..." - and off they went to buy some sundry items. There wasn't much problems getting all the small items, but in the end he did need Gani and Bayani to carry one bag each. The twins were more than ecstatic to help, but predictably hard to control.

It was when they passed a newly opened restaurant that trouble began to brew.

Spotting the advertisement on some colourful smoothies, the twins more than dragged Hugh to the front of the restaurant. The moment they opened the door to enter though, they were met with resistance.

The owner at first greeted them loudly - but his face immediately became thunderous when he registered them. "Out!" He said, dragging the attention of the customers inside and pedestrians outside. The intimidating air surrounding the owner made Hugh gently push the twins behind him.

"Is there something wrong, sir?" Hugh hoped that his non-threatening tone could diffuse the situation, but to no avail.

The man pointed at Gani and Bayani. "No scaly bastards in my restaurant!"

Hugh was deeply surprised at the man's words. "Sir! That is no way to talk to children."

At that the man pointed at a sign by the door. It was easily miss-able, but indeed there was a "No entry for Reptillians" sign with a cross over a silhouette of a lizard. There were so many levels of wrong in this situation.

If it was just Hugh he might have turned and left, but Gani and Bayani were behind him. He didn't want to give the impression that this situation was right in any way.

He kept the calmness in his voice, even with the fire of indignation burning within him. "You must be new in this city, sir!" And he threw in a kindly smile.

That threw off the owner, confusing him "Yes I am," he confirmed.

"Well let me give you some advice as a local," Hugh put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. "We don't practice anything about that sign here in this city. It is in fact against the law here, and I can report you to the adventurer's guild for further action." He pulled the man to his eye level. "I suggest that you take down that sign right now, before I do exactly that."

There must have been something in his eyes because the owner began to pale. Letting the man go, Hugh took a step back, still smiling.

Before either could do anything though, a customer from within - a Goliath - pushed the owner rudely to the side to see the no entry sign. At spotting it, the Goliath frowned. "Ridiculous. I won't give my business to a man who would give no entry to Reptillians." He signalled to the patrons within, and they began to leave en masse.

"W-wait!" The man quickly took down the sign. "It was just a party joke, you know?" But the Goliath simply threw down some money at the counter, cleaned his hands on a cloth, and threw it at the man's face. "Welcome to Janiga City," he said.

As he passed Hugh, the Goliath gave him a thumbs up. Hugh nodded back, surprised at receiving such support.

He decided it was time to leave too, and quickly ushered the twins away.

For a moment everything was fine, but Hugh noticed that the twins had become… quiet. Lacking in energy, as compared to before the incident. Thinking that perhaps they needed to talk, Hugh drew them to a quiet corner of the street and knelt so he was about their height.

“Gani, Bayani, you seem very quiet. Did that restaurant owner scare you?”

The twins looked at each other, then shook their head. “It wasn’t scary because you were there Hugh,” Gani explained.

“But that sign made me confused. Why did he put a big X over a lizard? He doesn’t like lizards?” Bayani asked.

“No, it’s not the lizards he doesn’t like.” Hugh wondered how to explain to the twins. They were the youngest of the five children interring at the mansion. He was tempted to simply sweep it under the rug, but that was the easier way. He knew that it was important for the twins to learn that such actions were wrong, even if they didn’t understand why.

“That restaurant owner was a bad man. He’s a bad man because he doesn’t want Reptillians, like Gani and you, to come into his restaurant. And he compared Reptillians to lizards. Do you like being called lizards?”

“No!” both of them chimed. “I’m not a lizard,” Bayani complained.

“No, you’re not. People who will call you ‘lizard’ and ‘scaly’ are not good people. You should stay away from people like that. And if they hang signs like the one you saw just now, you must go tell me, Miss Ruth, Sarah or Billy. Okay?” The twins nodded. “Okay, let’s see if you understood what I said. Tell me what you will do if you see that signboard at a shop anywhere in Janiga City.”

The twins repeated what he said in a chorus. That made Hugh smile.

“That’s great. Now I think we should go have something warm since the weather is so cold; chestnuts maybe?”

With that the incident drew to a close, but left Hugh with a lot to think about. Especially compounded with what he learnt from Alon. Hugh began to wonder if there was anything he could do for the Reptillians, who seem to be suffering from racial intolerance in a city that called for peace among the 10 races of Izgaea.

He discussed the matter with Ruth later that night. It was a habit now to ‘report’ his day to Ruth. At first he felt rather miffed about it, but soon realised that it was a way for Ruth, who was stuck behind a desk full of paper towers, to learn about what was happening in the city.

“You did the right thing with the restaurant owner and the twins. I will check with the Adventurer’s Guild to see if any action has been taken against that man.

As for what you can do for the Reptillians… perhaps you can learn more about them?”

“How would you do that?” Hugh asked.

“Reptillians, you see, are the one race amongst the ten with ‘alternative’ ways of seeing the world. In essence, their way of thinking is most different from the rest of us. Perhaps seeing how they live their lives will open your mind as to how they live in Janiga City. It is good timing; I need to meet the Naval Commander, and he lives with the Reptillians.”

“’Lives with the Reptillians’; he’s not a Reptillian himself?”

Ruth mysteriously smiled. “You’ll see what I mean tomorrow.”