Returning to No Applause, Only More of the Same

“Huh? Kreig?... What’re you up for?”

Kreig walked in to find Sam hunched over the fridge, an entire slice of cake in her hand. A complete mess. It honestly disgusted Kreig a bit, but he didn’t dare tell her to stop.

Lacking any reason to cease, Sam took another great bite out of her slice of cake. “Couldn’t sleep, huh?” She was entirely right, so Kreig had nothing to reply with. “Guess so. Yeah, I know how it is. First night in a brand new place… Gotta be tough, man. But it’s better than being down in that cell, right?” She beamed, giving a fantastic display of her canines. Kreig flinched. “Yup, yup. Maybe even better than what you had before coming here? I mean-, we haven’t really been told anything. We’ve seen your status, but that’s, like, nothing.”

“...There isn’t much to say.” In truth, there was a whole lot to say. He just didn’t feel like unloading it all upon his sister.

“No, no. No way, dude, you’ve shown me there’s a cat in the bag. Now you gotta let it out,” Sam said in all her grand wisdom. As Kreig tried thinking up a proper response, Sam cut herself another slice and went over to sit on the couch. A glance back at Kreig urged him to follow her.

So, there they were. Sam on one side of the couch, Kreig on the other. Her body sprawled out, lazily holding two slices of chocolate cake, eyes slowly blinking. Kreig sitting upright like he had a metal pole up his ass. He was secretly hoping the couch wouldn’t buckle under his weight, but Sam didn’t seem bothered in the least. “Say, what’s it like?” she asked. “In the otherworld, I mean.”

Kreig scratched at his cheek.

What was there to say? It was… it was a pretty normal place. There were monsters, he supposed. Not many of them here, now that he thought about it. Not all monsters were born monsters though, a lot ate strange mushrooms or Messiah’s Eggs to become changed into monsters. But most were born. Dragons were born monsters, same as with most drakes.

Ah, as far as he could tell, the fauna was… There were much fewer mushrooms here. Back in the otherworld, mushrooms were not only as large a part of most diets as meat was, they were also as common and large as most plants. Finding tree-sized fruiting bodies was common, and the uses often extended beyond just eating. Many(most) potions and poisons were concocted from mushrooms. He didn’t smell much of anything like that here. Though, it might just be the region causing it, and other continents and nations had a larger fungal population.

Then, there were also the cultural properties. Architecture here was different. People ate in a different manner (God forbid all the etiquette he’d learnt all those years ago proved useless), people acted differently… Though, again, a lot of it might be regional. And, even more so, a lot seemed to have changed since Kreig was last part of any actual society.

“...Not much different,” Kreig said. After all, humans were still the dominant species. The sky was still blue. People still breathed air.

“That’s no answer,” Sam pouted. “Come on, just a little something. Like, uhhh… What kind of pets did people keep? Dogs and cats?”

Pets? Ah, there was that, wasn’t there? “Last I recall, nobles enjoyed keeping magically awakened humans as pets. In some parts of the world, Magus Humans aren’t considered true humans and can be bought and sold as slaves or pets. Disgusting operation. For one man to own another… It is a sin.”

Sam seemed troubled by it. “Is-, is that so?...”

“Otherwise, young four-legged drakes are often quite docile. Though, once they reach an adolescent stage, they must either be released or slain.”

“Drakes… Oh, yeah! Aren’t two-legged drakes those t-rex looking things??”

Kreig’s mind drew a blank. “...What?”

Sam explained with animated movements what dinosaurs and t-rexes were, and when she finally explained that some could fly but they all died out millions of years ago, she was only left with a dazed Kreig. There used to be-, what? There was a massive race of drakes, thousands of species… And they all just died out? Impossible. What killed them? It must have been an amazingly powerful creature. If it was strong enough to kill millions of drakes, it must have an extremely high level. Possibly as high as Kreig’s.

He must beware of it.

“Anyway, tell me more about the otherworld. Something fun, though, nothing scary like that. Yeah? Like… what part did you like the most?”

A hard question with an easy answer. “The comrades I made.” The Five Bodies aside, his squadron had been a fantastically goofy bunch. Barely even respecting him as their leader despite his capabilities. But they had been loyal to a tee, and when they won a battle, they could party for days. When the vice-captain had died, the party and the mourning had seemingly drowned the whole capital in misery.

He hadn’t been too close to the captains of the other squadrons, but he still knew he could rely on them in a battle.

But after all that, the people he had learnt to trust the most… Must have been the party he formed in-between the wars, when his duties went from guarding the throne to defeating monsters prowling about the Empire. Those people had been as close to him as anyone, and when the Empire turned on him… They were his greatest allies.

“-That is really chichéd. But also sweet! So I’ll accept it. Not sure what else to say, so… What’re you most excited about coming back home?” Sam smiled, even when Kreig turned to her with a blank stare. “I mean-, I get you’re happy, and we are too! But what’re you the most excited for? There’s gotta be something.” She waited a moment, her eyebrows squishing together in thought. “Hrm… How about tacos? I remember tacos were your favourite food. It was even written in your diary! Heh, not that we, um, read it or anything.”

...If he was excited for something, it wasn’t some Earthly food. It wasn’t for soft beds either, or clean clothes. Not a warm home, not unfamiliar stars.

“...Meeting my family.” As simple as that. As complicated as that. Having family meant having people to love, people to protect. Years ago, when he had had so many people to love, so many saints and comrades and soldiers, he hadn’t thought that loving someone could be so important. Now, he knew different. He couldn’t love himself. But he could love his family.

Sam smiled. A soft smile stained with chocolate frosting. “Is that so?” Kreig nodded. “I’m… glad. Hey. Let’s go to bed, yeah?”

“Of course.”