Chapter 4: Bleak Future

Kenjiro started to regain consciousness. His head was pounding, his throat was dry and his body was aching like he broke every bone in his body.

He was a bit confused about why he was feeling like this until he remembered, he remembered everything. The betrayal by the heroes, his classmates. Then getting mauled by the demon king, now that he looked back on it, it was a stupid idea to go to the demon king, he was a demon king for a reason after all.

But after all that happened he wasn't filled with hate- no, it was just sadness, despair, depression. Why did this have to happen to him? Did he do something in his past life to make another god want to punish him?

But then he thought about how he was thinking. How was he thinking? Kenjiro should be dead.

Kenjiro tried to open his eyes but the light around him was too bright and his eyes immediately snapped shut as it actually hurt him to open them.

He tried to groan in pain but that only caused more pain to flare from his throat. It was dry like someone put the spiciest food down there and he hadn't had anything to drink.

He tried not to use his throat to make any sounds of pain but it was a natural reflex and that caused him more pain, making Kenjiro make more sounds. This caused an endless cycle of pain that wouldn't stop.

At least until he heard a door open and the voice of an old man was heard, it reminded him of his grandpa. "Shit, you're awake. Hang on, I'll get some water." He said calmly with his old voice, although it was calm Kenjiro could hear the nervous undertone of it.

Kenjiro heard him walk out of the room for a minute, while he continued to Lie in pain not even being able to open his eyes as it hurt to do that as well. It was a sensory overload for him.

Kenjiro heard the old man come back into the roll by the sound of his footsteps. He stopped beside whatever Kenjiro was lying down on and helped Kenjiro sit up. "Drink this, young man."

He put, what Kenjiro assumed was a cup, to his lips and Kenjiro started to drink. Starting with small sips until he was taking big gulps out of it.

When the water was gone the pain in Kenjiro's throat had almost completely gone except for a low continuous pain that radiated in his throat.

Kenjiro attempted to speak, which he did,and his voice was very hoarse sounding. "Can you block out the light? It hurts my eyes."

"Of course, young man." The old man agreed, closing some blinds. "I'm afraid this is the best I can do."

Kenjiro slowly opened his eyes, the light still annoying but not unbearable. "Thank you."

Kenjiro got a proper look around where he was. He was in a wooden bed with thin sheets, and his school clothes that were still ripped. The room itself was made out of wood although walls looked to be a better stronger type of wood as the floor looked like it was deteriorating.

But what shocked Kenjiro the most was the looks of the old man who had helped him. He had a bushy grey beard that still had some brown in it. His hair was almost fully gray except for the sides which still had some colour.

The reason he was shocked was because this old man looked like his granddad. It was emotionally wrenching to see someone who looked so close to his granddad. His granddad had died last year to cancer, by the time they had discovered it was already too late so they could only extend the time he had left although the doctors said that it could get worse any time.

Thankfully he lived for as long as the doctors said and Kenjiro and his family got to say proper goodbyes. It was just really emotional seeing someone you already accepted was gone just for them to appear in front of you.

"Are you okay, young man?" His grandda- no, the old man asked carefully. He asked this because Kenjiro's eyes were starting to water, even Kenjiro himself didn't notice.

"Y-." Kenjiro stopped and coughed a little but then calmed down his coughing and spoke. "Yeah, who are you?" Kenjiro asked, his voice still croaky and hoarse.

The old man smiled and told Kenjiro about himself. "I am Eisen Tamaki, the leader of the village you are currently in. I'm sure you're curious so I'll tell you. We found randomly outside of our village in… well not to be rude, but weird clothes. We took you in and the healer from church in this village healed you as best as she could, although apparently you have a curse on your wounds so it'll never fully heal unless the person releases the curse or they die, we tried to release the curse but… nothing worked. I'm sorry."

The Eisen said sadly and then Kenjiro remembered his face hurting, it still does but it's not unbearable. He slowly brings his hand to his face and touches it.

He can feel the indents from where the skin barely joined together again. He can feel the scars on his face, the rough barely healed skin compared to the smooth skin it was before.

He brings his hand down to his throat as the old man watches sadly as he sees the young man in front of him feel around his scars that would probably never heal.

The throat seems far worse than the face, although maybe that's because the scars are more close together. He can feel the scars and the skin that has barely healed, maybe it'll be like that forever?

Would this mean his voice would be like this forever? Would he die earlier because of this?

Kenjiro gulped a little, he could feel the irritation that the one simple action caused. It was something so simple that he barely thought about before but now he would be reminded about it constantly every time he ate, drank, gulped or anything.

"Will my voice be like this forever?" Kenjiro asked, it was a stupid unimportant question. But right now he didn't know what to ask, so he just went with the first thing that came into his mind.

"As far as the healer could tell, it would be damaged and can cause severe pain if you talk too loudly or too much. But you won't lose your voice, and you'll be able to expand the amount of time you'll be able to talk slowly as you get used to it." Eisen explained slowly. This kid was practically in shock, he barely knew what was going on around him, Eisen knew he needed to take this slowly so the kid didn't go into a panic.

"You're welcome to stay in this village for as long as you need, even if that is for the rest of your life. As long as you help out around here, you're welcome to stay here." Eisen said as he put his hand on Kenjiro's shoulder and squeezed it in a comforting manner.

"Thank you." Kenjiro said as he started tearing up, how was this old man so kind? In this cruel world that had completely destroyed him in less than a day. How was he able to keep his kindness for this long?

Eisen seeing that Kenjiro was starting to cry pulled him into a hug and patted his back as Kenjiro muffled his cries into the old man's shirt. Eisen even teared up a little, he wondered what this kid went through to make him cry into a stranger's shoulder.

After crying for a little bit Kenjiro regained as much of his composure as he could and straightened up on the bed. "Sorry about that, my name is Kenjiro Yoshihisa. If you don't mind, I would like to stay in your village…. I don't have anywhere else to go."

Eisen smiled, something that made Kenjiro relaxe. "Of course. You take it easy for now and I'll come back later to show you around." Eisen offered as he stood up from his spot on the side of the bed.

"Yeah, that'll be okay. Thank you again." Kenjiro responded, getting quiet as his throat started to hurt. It was already hoarse and he could tell it got dramatically worse after just speaking that little.

"That'll all the speaking you're able to do?" Eisen asked sorry for the kid who he just learned was called Kenjiro. That was even worse than he had thought, Eisen had thought Kenjiro would be able to speak some more but he only said a few short sentences and then his voice was practically gone.

Kenjiro just nodded his head sadly. This really was going to be difficult to get used to.

"Do you need some water?" Eisen asked. Kenjiro opened his mouth to try and talk but once he even started the pain just flared up and he stopped trying to talk, so instead he just nodded his head like before. "Don't worry, it'll get better."

Kenjiro didn't do anything and Eisen took this as a sign to leave Kenjiro alone for a bit. Kenjiro just sat there on the bed, thinking about what his life was going to be like.

When his classmates defeated the demon king, would they bring him back with them? Would it just automatically bring him back with them? Would they even defeat the demon king?

So many questions, but no answers were available for Kenjiro.

But the most important question and one that constantly reappeared in his mind was, how was he going to survive?

Yeah the villagers had offered him to stay in the village, but he didn't know how long that invitation would stay available. What if one harsh winter they kicked him out because of lack of food? What if they found his face scary or something? What if demons attacked? What if-.

Kenjiro was cut off as Eisen came back in the room with another glass of water. He handed it to Kenjiro who just nodded his head in thanks.

Kenjiro drank half of the water and put the cup with the other half on the shelf beside the bed.

Eisen handed Kenjiro a small notebook and a pen, although the pen wasn't fancy and was poorly made. Kenjiro took it but looked confused at Eisen as to why he had given it to him. "Just in case you talk too much and you need to say something. I'm sure it'll happen a lot in the beginning."

Kenjiro nodded his head, opened the notebook and wrote down a 'thank you' on it. Eisen just laughed off his thanks while waving his hand dismissively. "It's grand, it's grand. Don't worry about it."

Kenjiro then wrote down a question: 'can you show me around? And show me what I have to do to repay you?'

Eisen just sighed. "Sure, I was hoping for you to take it easy for a few days but if you're that eager to help I won't stop you. Come on."

Eisen stood up from the bed and Kenjiro followed him out of the room, through a small sitting room and then outside.

Just from what Kenjiro could see from stepping outside it really was a poor village, although he had no knowledge about this world and its standards he knew from history books that this would be one of the poorer villages.

There were no proper paths, only dirt and some grass growing from where people didn't step. There were a few houses made out of wood and a tall building made out of stone, that Kenjiro assumed was a church because it looked similar to one.

He could see the edge of the town from where he was and the village was protected by a small wooden wall around the edge that didn't look like it would do much against monsters or humans.

There were a few kids running around having fun, some play fighting with wooden swords. Once they saw him they looked a little frightened and Kenjiro could blame them. He didn't see his face but he knew it wasn't pretty.

A few adults walked around the edge in leather armour and iron swords, although Kenjiro couldn't tell the condition of the swords because of the distance he knew they couldn't be that well maintained as the village didn't look to have the resources.

"Come on, I'll show you the important places and some people you'll help while staying here." Eisen said in a kind voice. He could see the way Kenjiro looked sad when seeing the way the kids looked at him, there was also a bit of longing and sadness when looking at them. Perhaps he had a family?

Kenjiro looked at Eisen and nodded his head, following Eisen as he pointed out a few things as they walked through the village. Eisen greeted a few people that talked to him and Kenjiro could only wave, after finding out his voice wasn't working even after drinking the water.