Give & Take

Liar Liar

"Here we go again," the hero muttered as he had no choice but to straighten himself up, put on his best fake smile and enter the mayor's house. If it wasn't for the fact that the other was loaded, he wouldn't even have become mayor. Minhyun didn't have any cold blood with them and he rather kept it that way as he acted warmly towards all the earls, barons and higher status people alike. Whenever they had problems, they came here to complain and once the problems have been looked through, the most mundane or difficult tasks were handed to him. Although Minhyun didn't want to be bothered with these rich snobs who were probably brainless and a complete waste of space, he still had a reputation to uphold as he greeted them as they started to raise their complaints to him.

Blah, blah, blah... All of them started to sound the same at some point. The females were always a little more touchy with him while the males were loud. Minhyun made his way through the crowd into the back room which belonged to the mayor. Inside was an Earl with a bandaged hand, yelling about bringing all the peasants down or something of the sort as Minhyun approached the mayor's table. It wasn't a rare occurance so Minhyun paid no heed.

"Finally, you are here, Minhyun," the mayor addressed him and the Earl cooled down a little, seeing the hero.

"Yes, I came as soon as I could," Minhyun said even though he knew that was a lie.

"So this Earl here had an accident-"

"It wasn't an accident! That man hurt me! A peasant!" the Earl snapped and Minhyun raised a brow. That was, of course, now unheard of but it wasn't as common since most peasants knew their place and wouldn't dare approach someone as high ranking as an Earl.

"Yes, yes. I've heard you say that for the 10th time now," the mayor said and Minhyun almost hummed in amusement but held his tongue. "A peasant hurt him as you can hear. And he wants to take down this man for his crime."

"Crime?" Minhyun responded in a rather confused tone.

"Yes! He dared lay a hand on me and for that, he should be punished," the Earl continued yapping.

"Could this... Crime perhaps be related to your bandaged hand?" Minhyun questioned since it was the only thing that Minhyun could see was 'hurt'.

"Yes, yes. Stop asking questions and bring that man down! Dead or alive! I do not care but I want his body at my doorstep!"

"And how does this... Man look like?" Minhyun asked since he couldn't possibly be catching some phantom human.

"Where is that boy?!" The Earl started looking around the room before opening the door and yelling for his little servant boy to come in. The boy held a drawing and shakily handed it to Minhyun who took it with a gentle smile. He opened it and observed the drawing.

"Very well. Dead or alive, he shall be delivered," Minhyun said with little to no amusement in his tone. The drawing wasn't very helpful but the boy also had something else to give Minhyun and it was a cape. Tattered and worn out. "What is this?"

"It belonged to the man, hero," the boy spoke and Minhyun nodded, unwillingly taking it from the boy.

"Thank you. It will come in handy," Minhyun said and smiled as he left the room, again going through the crowd of people before getting onto his own carriage.

"Where to, sir?"

"I'll need a sniffer and two guards. We have a little hunting to do."

"Yes, sir."

~~~

Hungry and exhausted, the tired male had found a spot to sit in the forest as usual. After running away from the Earl last night, Dongho was at a loss at where to hide. Without his cape, he felt exposed so he ended up going back into the forest instead. He tried to retie the cloth around his arms but they were falling apart, making it difficult for him to hide his skin. He was also cold and shivering a little since he had got caught in the rain. He tried to cover his fingers as he plucked berries to feast on since that was how he had survived all these while. Allow nature to feed him. On rare occasions when he dared himself to venture into town, he would come across a meal thrown out and that would be his meal for days provided he didn't touch it directly or there was no accident. The inside of his mouth was safe from his power and so were his insides thankfully or else Dongho doubted he would have been birthed in the first place.