Davies sat up in the snow and looked at Tisha who was running back toward her teammates after kissing him unexpectedly,

"What the hell was that?" he said aloud as he removed his glasses and wiped them clean of the snow that was blurring his vision.

[Another girl bites the dust]

[Seriously, how do you just get girls to keep falling for you?] Miya asked incredulously.

"I didn't do anything, she's just weird… and fun,"

[*Gasp* Oh my, Lil D, did you fall in love?] Miya asked with a playful tone.

'Not in a million years…' Davies replied almost immediately,

'... Also, stop calling me that!' he snapped at Miya.

[Oops, sorry, not sorry, what can you do about it?] Miya said with a laugh.

'...You… sometimes you're just a pain,' Davies just let the matter slide with a tired sigh as he picked himself up from the floor and waited for the B-Squad to catch up.

'Well, I can at least take advantage of the fact that she likes me to push her in the right direction… my direction,' Davies said to Miya.

[Is that the only reason though?]

'Yes, it is… she may be fun to play around with, but I am not sleeping with underage girls, she's still 17 for crying out loud,' Davies said with a protesting look.

[You mean, 17 with one month left till she's 18]

'Doesn't matter, why are you even so on my case about this,' he asked Miya.

[Because you smiled]

'I did what now?'

[When you went along with her game… you smiled genuinely for the first time in forever]

'That's… not right, it must have been a spur-of-the-moment thing,' Davies said, but his tone sounded unsure.

[You do know we are connected mentally right… I can your every genuine thought and I'm telling you, you smiled] Miya replied knowingly.

'...So, what… what does it matter if I smiled,'

[*sigh*]

[You and I both know you are not doing very well mentally and that's putting it mildly]

[More frankly speaking, you're messed up… big time, it's a wonder you can even go on with your everyday life without doing anything that would get you locked up in an asylum, though you owe most of that to your "Ice Dragon Heart" blessing]

[But it won't hold forever… You may not have noticed it yet, but it's already losing control of keeping your mental state in check, if things keep going on like this, you'll…]

'So, because of that, I should let myself go and try something as stupid as falling in love with someone that can help me heal,' Davies snapped.

'You must have read too many CEO romance novels from my memories to actually believe that kind of thing,'

'… there's no way in hell I'm doing that,'

'You seem to have forgotten what put my mental health into such a state,'

[But…]

'No buts!'

'That's final, I'll find another way to keep my mental state in check, but I'm not doing it,'

'Love is a dream that I'm not meant to experience because it always turns into a nightmare… it's always happened and this time wouldn't be any different,'

[But things are different now, you have a system and me now, you have a goal and a direction, you're no longer being dragged blindly by fate towards your demise… give yourself another chance]

[... You deserve another chance]

[Especially after the hell you've been through]

'... It doesn't matter whether I deserve another chance or not… I'm not doing it,' Davies stated firmly.

'...I'm not going through all that again,' he muttered to himself.

[...] Miya didn't say anything else. Her role was to help him take advantage of the system and give him advice on anything that she thought he needed to know, she wasn't able to do anything more than that, even if he refused her advice or attempts to help.

Davies put that out of his mind and refocused on the matter at hand, he still had to survive in this dungeon, complete the dungeon mission, and also work on turning the B-Squad into useful minions for him.

He could use his authority as the literal owner of their league to put them to work for him, but then they'd only obey the orders out of a sense of duty, there would be no loyalty involved. He wasn't trying to do something as dumb as creating brotherhood because he more than anyone knew how much bullshit things like that were, but instead he wanted to build something more primal with respect and fear as the building block of their relationship, then he'd add in benefits to keep a tight hold on them as his pawns.

'So… carrot and stick approach it is… for everyone, but her,' he said subconsciously as his eyes fell on the blue-haired girl that had just kissed him a few minutes ago but was now back with her group and having a lively conversation with them as they made their way towards him.

'... Yup, she's too dumb for the carrot and stick approach… she'd probably eat the stick and play with the carrot,' he sighed woefully as she was quite a huge variable in his plans for the B-Squad. Dominating people like her with fear would end up being counter-effective as she already had a weak mindset, otherwise, she'd not be so hesitant to kill monsters.

[Is this much planning really needed though?] Miya asked Davies as she couldn't understand why he was making so many efforts on planning how to turn a bunch of weaklings into his loyal lackeys when he could simply force them to do things, after all, they worked for him.

'Yes, it is… '

'Due to their high potential blessings, they have a deep-rooted subconscious pride, or conscious in some people's case,' he glanced at Anthony as he began his explanation.

'Since they think they are worth their weight in gold as they could potentially grow strong enough to one day step on people like me, they wouldn't willingly allow themselves to be pushed around so I have to establish a figure in their mind,'

'...A figure so powerful, so scary, so out of reach... that surpassing me, is not a thought that would ever dare to appear in their heads… only then can they become fully obedient and become useful pawns,' Davies laid out his plan to Miya.

[... So… you're going to be showing off] Miya stated.

'... well… yeah… I'd have to use a different method to deal with glasses girl though,' Davies replied.

"Did a little warmth make you think that you could stroll about in a gate like it was your backyard, conversing among yourselves without a care in the world," Davies scolded, his voice taking on a harsher tone than normal, as he stared at them, jolting them out of their conversations and once again reminding them that they were in a perilous situation inside a gate and not on a walk in a snow-themed park.

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To celebrate this, I'll be posting two chapters tomorrow...

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