4 Hostile Greeting

The rising morning sun shone light upon the second day of Jun Long being on this world of monsters and magic. Opening his eyes to the light coming in from the window, Jun Long sat up and sighed. It seems it wasn't all just some dream.

Jun Long was someone who couldn't get to sleep if he was too dressed up. He had laid his clothes in a neat pile on the table at the other end of the room, last night. He walked over, in his boxer shorts, and reached for his clothes.

BAAM!

The door to his room was forced open, and standing there was the ever energetic James Tarker. Upon seeing the nearly naked Jun Long, his broad smile quickly turned into a blank face. The two young men just stood there.

"Come down to the main hall to find me when you're done."

James Tarker slowly backed out of the doorway, as he said this. Who was he to disturb another man as they were about to jerk off in their own room?

"Wait!!" Jun Long cried out. "I'm just putting on my clothes!"

"Oh! So you were already done?"

"Done with what?" Jun Long didn't know what James Tarker was thinking about.

"You know… peeling your banana!"

"What?"

"Playing with your monkey!"

"What…?"

"Answering the 'bone-phone'!"

"You aren't thinking that I'm-"

"Beating the snake!"

"James, I'm just-"

"Greasing the pipe!"

"Wait, James! I'm not-"

"Shining your pole!"

"I'm just putting on my clothes!!"

…

The two young men made their way down to the main hall, where they sat and ate breakfast together. Today's meal was a slab of meat and some mashed potatoes.

With no sense of awkwardness between the two, Jun Long asked James Tarker if there were ways of making a living in this area. It seemed that he was quite determined to find ways to pay back his debt.

"Well," James Tarker began. "Seeing as you don't know much about the area, maybe it would be safer for you to take on jobs in the town!"

"Mm." Jun Long nodded to this proposal, as he was sure that he had no combat experience whatsoever.

"For freelancers, like you and I, the Adventurer's Guild is usually the best place to go to find those odd jobs!"

"Adventurer's Guild!" Jun Long was starting to get excited. "That might just be the best place to start."

"Heck yeah! Let's finish up, here, and I'll take you to the guild!"

"Okay!"

Jun Long had only known this blonde young man for a day, but he felt as though he could put his trust in him.

Walking through Jovial Town, in the morning, Jun Long could see a lot of lively children running around, and a lot of adults and teenagers moving around to do their jobs. It was just the same as his own world. The only difference was that there were a lot of demihumans, and elves, and dwarves mixed into the crowd.

Jun Long didn't know this, but Jovial Town had been set up so that tourists and adventurers would have to walk into the shopping district to reach the Adventurer's Guild. This wasn't just from the inns - this was from anywhere.

The shopping district, in most towns, would have a huge variety of shops. The road was wide, but it was still filled with people and carts going up and down the road. Jun Long was watching as people walked in and out of all these shops. He was amazed at just how busy everything was, in this one place.

As the two neared the Adventurer's Guild, Jun Long noticed a lot more people wearing armour. Most people had the same lean and muscular look, but there were also those with smaller statures, or those with very wide bodies. Among the demihumans, he was seeing more and more dog-like variants, compared to when he was still closer to the residential district.

"Hey James," he asked. "Is there a difference between the demihumans? There seems to be a lot more of a certain kind of them, as we keep walking."

"I don't really know," he replied. "I've seen a lot of different kinds of them, but I've never really thought to care about their differences haha!"

"So carefree…"

"Hehe!"

Jun Long's question was overheard by the sensitive hearing of a small group of the dog-like demihumans. It wasn't like it was the first time that the group of demihumans had seen a black haired person before, but the question that Jun Long had posed sounded offensive to them.

"Hey," the smallest of the group of demihumans stepped out to shout at Jun Long and James Tarker. "You got somethin' you wanna say to us?"

Jun Long didn't know that the two of them were being called out, so he just kept walking. Feeling disrespected, the dog-like demihuman who stepped out ran towards the two humans and flipped over and landed in front of them.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!"

"Us?" Jun Long pointed at himself and asked.

"If not you, then who?!"

"Do you know this guy, Jun?" James Tarker looked at Jun Long confused.

"No," Jun Long replied, then turned to the demihuman in front of them. "Do you know me?"

"No, I don't."

"Oh!" James Tarker stretched out his hand to the demihuman. "It's nice to meet you."

"Yes, nice to me- Wait!" The demihuman stopped in his tracks and then growled at the two of them. "You've offended me and my friends!"

At this time, the other five demihumans in their group moved to stand side-by-side with that smaller one. They all crossed their arms and puffed up their chests. To Jun Long, who was new to the world and its customs, this was very threatening. He ended up instinctively taking a half-step backwards.

"I don't know what you're talking about," James Tarker spoke up. "My friend here's new to town."

"New to town, eh?" A demihuman different from the smallest one said. "Doesn't give him no right to be talkin' 'bout us like that."

"Yeah!" The others chimed in.

"Oh, yeah?" James Tarker wasn't budging. "Just what did my friend here say to get you guys so pissed?"

"Uh…" a few of them looked at each other for confirmation. The smallest one barked up for the rest. "He was talking about how all us demihumans are the same! Well, we ain't!"

"Yeah!" The others chimed in again.

Jun Long was a little confused. He hadn't gone and said that all demihumans were the same. He was taken aback by the hostility that these demihumans were showing. It was the first time, other than with the horned rabbit, that he was faced up with something that could kill him in the next instant. It was frightening.

"Um," Jun Long tried to start. "I'm sorry for anything that I may have said … to offend you."

"You should be!" The smallest one barked at him.

"Yeah!" The others chimed in, this time with a bit more force.

"Could this be because of my question about the different kinds of demihumans that I asked James just before?"

"You bet your ass it is!"

"Hey," James Tarker tried to speak up. Jun Long stopped him, though, as he didn't want to trouble his friend.

"I'm sorry about having asked such a question," Jun Long took over the conversation. "I don't know the customs of the people around here, and I was being inconsiderate to those around me. I hope you'll forgive me and my friend for this mishap. I'll endeavour to not repeat it."

By the end of this seemingly well thought out speech, Jun Long had bowed to the demihumans in front of him. The group was surprised for a couple of reasons. The first one being that they weren't expecting an apology, much less one so long-winded, the second being that a human actually bowed to a demihuman.

To Jun Long, this kind of apology was like second nature. On Earth, with there being so many people becoming so sensitive over the smallest issues, one had to make it very clear to the other party that it was just an accident; a mistake, or they could be charged. It wasn't uncommon for the news to report about a random man having done, or said something, but hadn't intended it. The world really was quite messed up.

The dog-like demihumans were stunned, and could find no fault with the apology, but they didn't want to just back down from this little confrontation. They would lose too much face in front of this outta-towner.

The two parties stood in the middle of the road, looking at each other for a reaction. Jun Long's heart was beating so fast that he thought it would just jump right out of his chest if no one said anything soon!