001. As a side character who worked for the hero, I moved to the countryside after faking my death to live a normal life... if that was even possible

001.

A young man in his late twenties exits his home and walks to the back of the house. His house is the only house at this part of the village for there is a forest that the villagers stay away from.

Looking up at the flowers, his red blazing hair flowed in the wind as the wind brushed through his hair. His dark blue eyes that matched the beautiful clear sky.

He grabbed a watering pot nearby and sprays the water to the little and big plants around his garden.

"Ah~ This is so relaxing." The man said to the plants.

When all the plants in his garden looked wet enough, he placed the watering pot back where it was and wiped the sweat off his face.

Looking up at the sky, the young man smiled happily.

'This is the life I always wanted.' He thought to himself before he noticed a young lady around the same age as the man running towards him.

She was wearing a white fox spirit mask over her face and wearing a shrine maidens outfit. Her silky strawberry blond hair was in her face so she tucked it behind her ear as she yelled out,

"Hey, Akashiii! I brought something for you!" She laughed happily while still running towards him.

"Hana? What did you bring today?" Akashi wondered since he hasn't ordered anything for a while.

Now standing in front of him, Hana hands Akashi a basket. Curious, Akashi opened the basket and saw some deliciously baked bread and cookies, some deli and cheese, as well as a bottle of red wine.

"What is all of this..?"

"I want to take you somewhere. Is that alright with you?" Hana looked up at Akashi and smiled softly.

Akashi nodded and closed the basket. "Alright. Let me grab a few things and we can get going."

Both of them enter his two-story cottage. It has a very cozy atmosphere, though there isn't a lot of furniture.

Akashi heads upstairs as Hana sits on the couch in the living room—waiting for him to come down.

A few minutes go by and Hana hears footsteps scurrying down the stairs as she sees Akashi in a new set if clothes.

"I'm ready. Let's go, Hana." He smiled and opened the door, allowing Hana to exit swiftly.

Closing the door behind him, Akashi asked her, "Hana, where are we going?"

She turned to him and put her pointer finger on her lips and tilted her head slightly. "It's a secret."

Akashi shrugs and chuckles silently as they walk deeper into the forest.

"I thought the villagers didn't like wandering never this forest. Why are we walking deeper into it?"

"Akashi, I told you it's a secret. You have to wait until we get there."

Akashi nodded and continued to follower her deeper into the forest. 5 minutes into the walk and the trees change to purple willow trees— something that Akashi has never seen even after entering the forest a few times himself.

They steadily walked to the area Hana wanted to show Akashi really badly when she abruptly stopped in her tracks.

"Hana? Why did you–." Before he could finish his sentence, Hana rushed to a body laying in a pool of blood, Akashi doing the same.

"What happened to you Koharu?!" Hana shrieked in fear, picking up Koharu gently and trying to stop the blood.

Koharu's hand touched Hana's cheek softly and she smiled. "Hana... my little sister... run away. Run now.... You have to get out of here..."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Taking steady breaths, Koharu spoke once again. "There are monsters nearby... I barely managed... to get away from all of them..." she turned to Akashi and he nodded. He knew what he had to do.

Pulling Hana away from Koharu, Akashi looks down and sees Hana's clothes that was once clear of stain were now dyes red with Koharu's blood.

Turning to Akashi, she tried to break free from his grasp. "What are you doing, Akashi? Let me go right now."

"No. We have to get out of here and listen to your sister. She doesn't have that much time left, Hana..."

Hana's eyes widen and she started trembling. "No... We can still save her. We have to save her."

"I know, so you have to stay away from her so I can help her."

"Ah... yeah, okay. I'm sorry for yelling." Hana claimed down a bit knowing that Akashi would help her older sister.

Akashi kneeled beside Koharu and put his hands on her left leg and arm— where the blood was gushing out from.

Murmuring to himself, a green light shined over Koharu and Akashi, and her arm and leg stopped bleeding.

He took his hands off of Koharu and Hana ran towards her older sister and hugged her with teary eyes.

"Sister..." Hana managed to say without crying. Koharu patted her head and helped her stand up.

"Koharu, what attacked you? There shouldn't be any more monsters in this world?" Akashi asked, as he clearly remembered killing the demon king with the heros party.

"...I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"I can't explain it. It looked like a black figure with a layer of violet colored fog surrounding it as well as Crimson red eyes. When it looked at me, I couldn't move.

It was like it had paralyzed me with just its stare. It said to me, 'this is just the beginning! The new world will soon be under our rule! This would have been so much faster if that old man listened to us, now we have to do the dirty work since that old man couldn't do his job right.' The old man being the demon lord i assume."

"..." he was speechless. 'There are more beings that haven't been killed yet? What exactly had the Heroes party been doing since I was kicked out?'

He shook his head. "Anyway, we need to head back to the village to make sure everyone is safe."

Koharu and Hana nodded and took lead as Akashi followed behind them.

Exiting the forest, everything seemed normal, nothing hadn't come here. At least not yet.

They walked towards the village and saw blood splotches on the ground near the entrance.

"No way... did it already come here? Is everyone dead...?" Hana started trembling, thinking the worse to come—which she was right on.

The village had blood all over the buildings and bodies piled on the sidewalks. There were toys on the streets, the owner nowhere to be seen.

After looking into all of the houses to find any survivors, they only had one house left to check.

Opening the door silently, the trio entered the house that they haven't checked yet. The closet door creaked a little.

Hana flinched and hid behind Koharu while Akashi hesitantly walked towards the closet door. He opened it as fast as he can and he saw two trembling children looking up at him in fear.

There was a boy who looked to be the age of 17 and his younger sister who looked to be around 10.

"Come on out, the monster is gone." He held out his hand as the boy took it and carried his sister with the other.

The two children stayed silent no matter what Akashi or Koharu asked them so everyone stopped talking and exited the village with the only survivors left.

TO BE CONTINUED.