Not Much Have Changed, Really

"My head…" I opened my eyes only to close it again as a splitting headache hits me like a freight train. "Just how much did I drink last night… Aqua, heal…" I turned to the left expecting to see a certain goddess sprawling on the hay.

Instead, I found myself staring at the beautiful lithe figure of a certain Crimson Demon. She slept right next to me, her eyes closed and a peaceful smile could be seen on her face. I couldn't help but to smile myself and gently caressed her head.

Yeah, Megumin is my girlfriend now. I honestly thought that Aqua would be the first, but the situation calls for it. I understand now what Paradox meant by her leaving the Fantastic Dreamer before she learn any other skill.

It's not that she wants to, but since she was extremely guilty, she needs some sort of a punishment to lessen this guilt of her. If I were to say that she can repent on her mistake by learning other skill, she'll lose her sense of position and identity in this party and just leave. By punishing her, I made her focus on her mistake on using the crystal staff instead of her failure of learning literally any other spell.

Megumin's eyes fluttered open. Our eyes met for a bit and her face turned into a smile. "Good morning Kazuma…" she yawned a little before grimacing. "Ah! My head… Wh-what's going on? Is this what they call hangover?"

I sat up and helped her up. "Yep, it's hangover, come on, let's get some breakfast,"

…

After a short trek through the snowy city of Axel, we made it in front of the guild. "Now that I think about it, half of Axel probably knows about our relationship right now huh?" I asked nonchalantly.

"Whose fault do you think it was?" Megumin deadpanned.

I took her hand and held it tightly. "Well then let's make it official," I said before pushing the door open.

When I entered the guild, a bunch of waitress welcomed us as always. But when they saw me holding hand with Megumin, they gave us a quick congratulation before hurriedly walking into the kitchen. Dunno what's that about but doesn't seem to be a problem.

I looked around the guild and saw Darkness and Aqua sitting in the nearby corner. "Good morning!" I greeted them.

"Morning Kazuma," Aqua said, watching closely as Megumin and I sit right next to each other. "S-so, Megumin, how was it like to be Kazuma's girlfriend?"

Megumin blushed and looked down. "Well… I half expected him to attack me in my sleep and forced me to sleep naked."

"Oi!"

"But it turns out he's not like that… It's not bad, really…"

Aqua looked at us holding each others hand on top of the table with obvious envy. "W-well, I'm glad to hear that, just so you know, I'm not sleeping in the stables again so have fun sleeping with the horses and pervert, hmph."

I just chuckled in response. "Don't worry Aqua, I'm planning on building up my harem once I get a proper housing," then I turned to Megumin. "By the way, Megumin, I want to do an experiment with you."

Megumin looked at me suspiciously. "What kind of experiment?"

I grabbed a cup of water and used my control over water magic to freeze it. "As you can see, I can freeze stuff at will," then I took out my adventurer card and showed the skill 'Water Control II'. "This is the skill I earned after figuring out how to freeze water. Cool thing is, I didn't spend any skill points to do this."

"You want me to learn a new skill?"

"Yes and no, yes I want you to learn a new skill, no I don't want to make you spend skill point for it," I clasped my hand together. "Please, Megumin, train together with me?"

Megumin bit her lip and looked away. "Well, there's no helping it," she nodded a little. "Yes, we'll try, what skill do you want me to learn Kazuma?"

I pointed at the crystal attachment on her staff. "That thing is harder than steel, makes a pretty good bludgeoning weapon don't you think?"

"You want me to learn melee attacks?"

"Can you even use any other magic?"

Megumin smirked and nodded a little. "Well, I always wanted to know how it feels to bludgeon my enemies to death," she looked at me with a dangerous glint in her eyes. "Let's do it Kazuma!"

"Well then, after breakfast we…" my words were cut short when a waitress came rushing towards us with a large tray. On top of it, is this world's equivalent of a birthday cake. A bunch of fried toads arranged as a mountain with a bunch of dead vegetable sticks as garnishes.

"Congratulations on your engagement, Kazuma, Megumin!" the waitress exclaimed while putting the tray right in front of us. The word 'Kazumin' is written on the plate with sauce. "It's on the house, from the guild."

"Thank you,"

Megumin grabbed one of the toad legs and started eating. She gave the waitress a thumb up and a shooing motion as she munched down on it. Seriously, this girl sure loves eating, she must've been really struggling before she met us huh?

---

I stood in the middle of a vast clearing just outside Axel City. In front of me stood Megumin, holding a crystal staff in her hands. I raised my own cheap staff I bought in the store that I strengthen with my own passive magic.

"Where I come from, there's no such thing as skill point!" I exclaimed before rushing towards her.

Megumin raised her staff to defend herself. After the battle with one shot bear and the winter shogun, she's level thirty now, making her the same level as I am. "W-wait! I'm not ready Kazuma!" she exclaimed, clumsily blocking my attack.

"EXP is an acronym for experience," I told her before swiping her off her feet and forced her on to the ground. "The more you get beaten up, the more experience you get."

"Ouch…" she slowly stood back up. "You'll pay for that!"

"That's what I like to hear," I said while twirling my own staff. "Come on, show me what you're made of!"

Megumin charged towards me, staff held high to whack me all the way to the next Monday. But I easily dodged it and tripped her, making her fall flat on her face. "Well? I thought you're going to make me pay?"

The girl gritted her teeth and glared at me. "You're going to regret ever crossing the strongest of the Crimson Demons!" she exclaimed.

Since we're both level thirty and up, both of us has virtually limitless stamina. I took advantage of this and drill Megumin through all sorts of techniques bestowed to me through the power of skill points. I had it easy for sure, but Megumin decided to take it the hard way.

Being a crimson demon, she's gifted with very high intellect (intellect != wisdom). This makes her faster to gain skill point and learn new stuff. This is also why I decided to teach her melee combat like a spartan instructor, cuz I know exactly that Megumin will learn this quickly.

So there we were, practicing for hours in an empty plains. A distance away from us, Aqua already rolled out a picnic blanket and is now having tea with Darkness. They were talking to each other about something, but I can't hear from all the way over here.

"Hya!" I ducked under a swipe only to realize it was a feint. A very painful sensation spread across my rib, followed by a kick right in the guts. I dropped on my back and found Megumin standing above me, holding her staff on my face.

A satisfied grin could be seen on her face. "I told you…" she gasped a little in exhaustion as she pressed her staff to my forehead. "You'll regret it."

'thunk'

I just laughed when she smacked my head again with her staff. She then helped me up and we both walked back to where Aqua and Darkness is waiting.

"Megumin sure have a talent in beating you up huh?" Aqua teased.

"She sure does," I sat down on the blanket and Megumin sat down beside me. She leaned her head on my shoulder. "Also, Aqua, do you mind?"

The goddess raised her hand and a cool refreshing sensation spread across our body. It seems Megumin also felt the same way, she too sighed in relief and leaned closer to me. "Ahh… This is bliss…" she muttered to herself.

Seriously, you've never truly lived until you have a healing spell right after a rigorous exercise.

"So, Megumin, did it work?" Aqua asked. "Did you learn a new skill?"

Megumin took out her adventurer card and looked at it. In there, right beneath 'EXPLOSION' are two passive skills. Two Handed Weapon I and Martial Arts I, above all of it is her skill point that's still a solid fifty as we've started.

The girl smiled and showed it to Aqua. "I did it!"

Both Darkness and Aqua clapped their hands.

"Congratulations Megumin! You're becoming useful!"

"Congratulations, you're not a dead weight anymore."

A dark look appeared on Megumin's face. "I want to test this out on someone else, come on, let's take it over there," she stood up and started dragging Aqua by her collar. "Let's go, we'll test out my skill on an arch priest…"

"Wa-wait! Megumin, I'm joking! Joking!" Aqua struggled against her grip, but being a healer, she hasn't really leveled up since we arrived. "Megumin, I'm not a fighter, wait, I'm sorry!"

I just laughed at the sight of Megumin beating a very terrified Aqua with her stick. The goddess cried as she begged for mercy and forgiveness while Megumin just smacked her head again and again for calling her a useless deadweight.

Glad to see that our relationship didn't affect our party's dynamic.