**

The next day when I went to the training I was again beaten by another legionnaire. When the training was finished, I returned to the village and went on the explosion date with Megumin. After she left another crater into the field, I rated her explosion and laid myself beside her in the grass just like I did in the days before and let her rest in my arms.

"How did the training go today?" Megumin asked me. "Have you become a legionnaire yet?"

I haven't yet revealed to her what the conditions for becoming a legionnaire were. I hesitated to answer her question.

"Umm..."

Megumin was looking me in the eye.

"I heard the conditions for becoming a legionnaire were defeating a legionnaire in a sparring match. Did you manage to do that?"

Oh no, she found that out from someone! She's going to find out there are people that can beat me up in a fight.

I turned my look away from her. Megumin chuckled and kissed me on the cheek. I was surprised by that.

"Come on, I'm not going to abandon you because you aren't the greatest warrior in the world."

I patted her on the head and smiled.

"What do you propose, then?" I asked her. "I am starting to learn how to fight with a shield and I am getting my ass beat by those people who actually know how to fight with a shield!"

Megumin took her eyepatch out of her pocket and showed it to me.

"If you will wear this lucky charm from me during the sparring match, you will defeat your opponent, even if he is some kind of veteran." Megumin told me

What!? Now I am to blind one of my eyes during the fight?

"Y-your eyepatch? Isn't wearing your eyepatch a little... lewd?"i joked 

Megumin's cheeks turned to red and her attitude changed to a shy one.

"Oh... I-if you don't want it, I will not give it to you... I wouldn't have given it permanently to you anyway, I would have taken it back after your inevitable victory."

Suddenly I felt like I wanted that eyepatch, seeing how precious it was to her.

"No! Give me that eyepatch, I was just kidding!" 

It was either that, or Megumin influenced me way too much.

Megumin gave me her eyepatch and I quickly put it over one of my eyes.

"How do I look?" I asked her

Megumin's eyes brightened.

"You look cool, Y/n!" she praised me. "You should wear eyepatches more often."

"I will only wear this one during tomorrow's training. I would only wear an eyepatch regularly if I lost an eye, God forbid. Anyway, what's the story of this eyepatch?"

"I got it as a gift from Arue, a former classmate."

"That's all?"

"Yes."

"Wow, I expected some kind of flashy story..."

(Timeskip to the next day, during the training)

Commander Cornelius spun the bottle and it spun in my direction. Then Cornelius spun the bottle again and it picked Andrew.

Huh, so I am to duel Andrew, the guy who beat me during the first day of training?

Before I took my wooden sword and shield, I wore the eyepatch Megumin gave me over one eye.

This should better be working... I thought as half of my vision went away because of the eyepatch.

Cornelius gave us the signal, and I charged at Andrew. I pushed away one blow with the shield while I did a low feint. Andrew fell for it and I hit him suddenly over the head with an overhead swing. Then I profited off the momentum and kept pummeling his helmet and I pushed him with the shield onto the ground. I waited for him to get up, and when he got up I managed to do another powerful strike on his torso. Then he swung and I parried with the shield.

Then Cornelius whistled and gave us the signal to stop.

"Wow, Y/n was quite fast and carried himself pretty well, despite wearing that silly eyepatch for no reason. So Y/n managed to hit Andrew 7 times in the head and 1 time in the torso. Andrew managed to hit Y/n 2 times in the torso. The winner is Y/n!"

I didn't even notice when he hit me. Maybe because of the adrenaline or the eyepatch?

Andrew came up to me and shook my hand.

"Congratulations, you will become one of us now." Andrew told me.

My eyes widened when I heard that.

I almost forgot about that.

"T-Thank you!" I said

Commander Cornelius moved towards me.

"Kneel!" he ordered

I knelt.

Cornelius came up to me, unsheathed his sword and made the sign of the cross with it in front of me. Then, he put the sword back in it's sheath.

"With the authority granted to me as a commander of king Dimitry's army, I grant you the rank of legionnaire. Rise, Y/n, legionnaire of the kingdom!"

I stood up and Cornelius hugged me. I was still surprised by that. I wore an eyepatch during the entire short ceremony.

The legionnaires around us cheered as they welcomed me in their ranks.

And from then on, the rest of the training went smoothly and I cheerfully returned to the village to get Megumin.

(Timeskip)

I found Megumin in our room, playing with the crowbar I had in my backpack. When she saw me, she looked me in the eye and was about to ask me:

"Well? How did it g-"

But I ran up towards her and took her in my arms, lifting her in the air. That was easy for me to do, since I was taller than her by a lot. I was still on a happiness overdose.

"Thank you for the eyepatch!"

Megumin was surprised. She immediately understood that I succeeded.

"Oww! You're crushing me!" Megumin complained

I let her go.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" I blushed

"No problem." she said, smiling. "Can I take my eyepatch back now?"

"Sure." I handed her eyepatch back and she wore it.

"I've got an idea." Megumin told me. "Want to hear it?"

"Yeah."

"What if we take a different route in the forest this time? Maybe we can find some nice things. There is time for the explosion."

Now that's something I never thought would come out of Megumin's mouth.

"Okay. Let me take my backpack then, it might be of use."

I took her hand and soon enough we were back in the forest, but this time on another route. As we were walking between the trees, birds could be heard chirping everywhere.

"When I looked from atop the keep, I saw some kind of clearing between somewhere in this direction." Megumin said. "I think I might've seen a lake."

We reached the lake in a few minutes, it was very wide and it covered a large area. It seemed to be deep for the most part, and shallow enough for someone to bathe in it on the edges.

"Here we are! Back in my world, exploding lakes was fun."

"Isn't this a bad idea?" I asked

"No. Take a look!"

Megumin cast her Explosion spell right in the middle of the lake. I expected a disaster to happen, but it seemed like the lake was untouched by the explosion. For a moment, only the trees around were slightly pushed and swayed because of the explosion's shockwave.

But after that moment, waterdrops that were exploded in the air started to fall back to the ground and it was like a rain. Megumin fell right as the rain began and I lifted her and carried her under a tree.

"What do you say about that, Y/n?"

"It was nice, I didn't expect it to cause a rain."

"This rain will soon-" and as soon as Megumin said that, the rain stopped, "-stop."

Then I saw a dead fish washing itself on the shore of the lake.

"Hey look, your explosion caught a fish!" I said. "Let me cook it."

I took the fish in my hand and put it beside Megumin. The fish felt very soapy and slippery in my hand.

I made a small campfire, made a fire and I started cutting the dead fish's head off with a steak knife I took out of the backpack. I was really grateful it was dead and it didn't struggle in my hand as I did that.

God alone knows how much I hate killing fish, feeling them struggling in my hand as they die. I always tried to play it cool when my father was around, tho.

After taking it's head off, I took it's guts out and started cleaning it of scales.

"I can leave most of it to you, if you want." I told Megumin. "You better want it, because my hands might smell after this, as much as I clean them afterwards."

Megumin smiled at me.

"Sure."

"But, just make sure you don't swallow any bones."

After I took it's scales off, I pierced the fish with a pointy stick and held it above the fire to cook. The fire itself was a little far from Megumin and I really wanted to clean my hands, as they had blood and fish grease all over them.

"Can you move now, Megumin?"

During the long time it took me to clean the fish's scales Megumin had the time to recover.

"Yes."

She came at me and I gave her the stick to hold above the fire while I cleaned my hands.

It took a while, but the blood and all that stuff went away in the end. When I turned around back to Megumin, I found that she was already earnestly biting the cooked fish.

Oh, she must've been hungry.

"You want some?" she asked me

"No, I'm fine." I answered, sitting by the fire with her. "I will let all of it to you."

"Thanks, Y/n! This is nutritious and will help me grow!"

I knew what she was talking about.

"Yes, it will help you grow all parts of your body." I said. "Including that part you want to grow the most: your breasts."

Megumin's eyes glowed harder and she blushed. Then she glared at me and pushed me with one hand.

"How disgraceful of you to say that! How could you know this is what I want?"

"Oh, I think I've reached the point when I can read you like a book." But then I muttered to myself: "I don't mind it at all that you have small breasts tho, I like it that way."

"What was that?" Megumin asked

"Oh, nothing!"

But little I did know, Megumin had heard that and she was actually pleasantly surprised. Megumin smiled and leaned on me as she continued eating the fish.

(Timeskip)

We returned to the keep in the evening after our little date and then we were called by the king for dinner. As we were at dinner, king Dimitry established several things: tomorrow, his son Ivan along with 39 legionnaires under the lead of a legionnaire officer will depart for Ghoulparadise and guard it against a potential trojan attack.

Scouts are also to be sent southwards at the pass in the mountain and return as soon as they see the enemy army. Commander Cornelius would stay with king Dimitry and command the army for he upcoming attack on the capital.

Then, after these serious conversations were over, everyone at the table started chatting random stuff individually. Megumin, always willing to eat more and more, finished her plate and started eating from mine. I was curious how Cornelius managed to get out of Troy alive.

"Hey, commander." I said. "How did you manage to get out of Troy?"

"On the day they decided to turn on us, I didn't escape." Cornelius said. "After slaying 14 of them heathens, I hid inside the house of a steward named Thad, who was gracious enough to risk hiding me here."

"That's cool! When we beat those guys, we should spare Thad and his family. Does he have any family?"

"He has 2 daughters and son-in-laws, his wife is no longer alive, tho."

After we finished our dinner, I saw Megumin was getting sleepy and we returned to our bedroom to sleep. A little time passed by and I could deduce by her breathing pattern that she fell asleep. But I couldn't fall asleep. I tossed and turned and I saw that she was sleeping peacefully on her back.

Whoa, who is able to do that anymore? I know I can't sleep on my back.

A daring idea came to my mind and I got out of my bed and put myself in her bed, crawling myself silently under her cover.

Sleeping Megumin is really beautiful up-close. Time for the next step of my plan: give her a good night's kiss.

I leaned closer to her face, ready to go for it. But Megumin's eyes slowly opened up and her head turned to face me. My lips were still in her direction.

My heart burst in my chest as Megumin's eyes widened, a genuinely scared expression on her face. She jumped straight out of the bed.

"You beast! Y/n, you beast!"

Despite the initial panic, I remained calm.

"Oh, come on now! Can't I give my beloved a good night's kiss?" I teased her.

"Huh?" I saw by her expression that she was letting her guard down.

"In fact, I feel deeply wounded that you would think I could do malicious things to you while you sleep!" I closed my eyes and gestured towards my heart, as if to show how offended I was.

I moved to a sitting position, as if I was about to get up. Megumin hurried towards me and pinned me back on the bed.

"You're doing this just because you want to repeat what we did back in the forest with the blankets, don't you, Y/n?"

Her eyes started to glow, she was excited.

"Yes." I answered. "I figured I would fall asleep easier because of that."

"Fall asleep easier?" Megumin was holding back a chuckle. "I remember how your heart almost popped out of your chest that night, do you believe you can make me think you'll fall asleep now?"

"I will try." I said, taking her in my arms.

Megumin relaxed, but I was still stepping in uncharted territory, so I was nervous.

I brought this upon myself.

She was on top of me, and her head was resting on my chest. Although we laid on the grass like that numerous times in our explosion dates, doing that in the bed felt weird and different. I held on to her tighter, and she moaned.

Oh no.

"Oh, sorry, did I hurt you?"

"No, it is ok, it was just a little bit unexpected..."

 I didn't know what to do so I got the trojan coin I got from Cornelius out of my pocket. The moonlight made the coin shine.

"I don't know, have I shown this to you?" I asked her, showing the coin to her

"No."

"Cornelius gave this to me, he found it on the crossbowman that went after us. It seems these trojans are minting coins."

"It has a horse's head on it." Megumin whispered

"Yeah, the giant iron horse you killed." I took her hand and gently opened her fingers, putting the coin in her hand. "I'm giving this to you, as a gift."

Megumin took it and we looked into each other's eyes.

Her eyes always glow when she's excited, always betraying her. She must know this.

I started to lean in for a kiss, but I heard the door to our room start opening. I quickly rolled out of my bed, pushing Megumin aside and hurrying for the sword, which was by my bedside. I unsheathed it and I quickly turned again to face the intruder.

He was a tall man and an opera mask was covering his face. He wore a trenchcoat and in his hand he wielded an executioner's sword. His sword had fresh, dripping blood on it.

"Huh, you're quick on your feet, are you?" the assassin whispered in a sinister voice.

As he said that, Megumin got out of bed and grabbed her staff, staying behind me.

"You will regret that you disturbed us." I said

"Oh?" his tone was slightly amused. "I could hear the girl shout how much of a beast you were from outside of the room. Did I interrupt something?"

"Yes!" I shouted

"No!" Megumin shouted at the same time.

"Fufufu, now I will make sure this is the last night for you clowns."

"Get fucked!" I shouted, quickly kicking him to the chest, sending him reeling out of the room. "Guards! Come, here! There is an intruder!"

I charged at the intruder, but he quickly got back on his feet and parried my swing. I swung again and he dodged. Then he ran up the stairs to the top of the keep and I followed him.

When I was about to reach the top of the keep, he ambushed me with an upwards swing, I dodged it. Then he put his foot in front of mine and pushed me to the ground. He thrust his sword but I deflected it and got back on my feet.

The noise we were making ought to attract guards, he has no way out. All I need is to make him lose time.

In fact, I could hear some voices and running coming closer and closer towards us. The assassin heard too and he became more desperate, swinging viciously and desperately while I parried and dodged his hits. I managed to disarm him with an elbow to the face just as 3 legionnaires reached the top of the keep.

The assassin peeked at them and then quickly climbed on the parapets and jumped off.

"Whoa, he jumped off!"