In the darkness of night, the well-decorated hall on the property of the Lecroy estate indicated that the banquet was in full swing. The guests had arrived and the host as well as the celebrant had arrived as well and was being greeted and congratulated by the guests… or at least, he was being congratulated by most of them.

Davies wasn't doing any of that and simply remained where he was as he was not going to join the crowd and rub bodies with the sweaty bodies of others just so he could congratulate someone he did not know, neither did he even put him in his eyes.

So, he stayed back and simply continued sipping wine peacefully, different devious thoughts running through his mind as he stood waiting for something to trigger him into action.

Soon enough, the opportunity for him to take action arose when he decided to move towards a table that had food laid out on it.

He didn't want to only continuously fill his food with wine that couldn't even make him tipsy if he drank from then till the next day, so he wanted to at least fill up his stomach with something that was delicious.

Shockingly, he met Melinda there as well, but she simply held a wine glass and wasn't eating anything. It seemed she was there out of convenience as she didn't want to be stuck in the crowd as well.

"I never expected someone with a name like the Flaming Winged Enchantress, to be someone with such a cold temperament," Davies spoke without even looking in her direction as he stopped at the table to pick up a delicious-looking pastry that was oozing cream.

Melinda was surprised that Davies had been the one to take the initiative to begin a conversation and was even more shocked that she somehow hadn't noticed him approaching until he stepped right into her field of vision. It was almost like he was in some sort of stealth mode that made people literally ignore his existence even when he stood right beside them.

'Seems like he did his homework,' she thought with slight wariness as she realized that he had recognized her without them having ever met her before and had even called her by a name that was only used by the other Megas.

"I also never expected the well-acclaimed genius of the century to be this handsome," she replied to Davies, deciding to compliment him a little so that they could have a frictionless conversation.

"Oh, you know me?" Davies spoke in a slightly surprised tone as he bit into the pastry smoothly and elegantly not staining his lips with any of the cream that was oozing out of the pastry into his mouth.

"I half expected to be unrecognized by almost everybody, seems you have been keeping tabs on me," he spoke again as he bit into the pastry once again, but this time he bit quite sharply and his teeth could be heard clamping together sharply with a click, his eyes also narrowed coldly as well as he stared coldly at Melinda.

Melinda immediately felt a chill run down her spine as she heard the direction of Davies's words that insinuated that she had been spying on him and she had no words to use to deny it as it was kind of true because while she hadn't paid extreme action to Davies, she had always made sure to stay informed about things that occurred around him through different means.

"I'm joking," Davies suddenly said with a little laugh.

"Anyway, I'm Davies Lake, a well-acclaimed and handsome genius like you said," he went on to introduce himself, albeit a bit cheekily and narcissistically.

"Also, I wouldn't really mind if someone as beautiful as you were spying on me," he added in a low tone as he stretched a hand for a handshake.

"Melinda Ashborne," Melinda answered curtly, ignoring everything Davies had said but his name as she stretched out her hand to meet his handshake. As a heroine, she naturally had high defenses so she wouldn't be so easily moved by Davies's half-hearted attempts at flirting with her especially as she could hear it in his tone that he didn't mean anything by the words he had said.

It was weird how Davies was able to display a lackadaisical emotion while his words were saying something completely different from the emotion he was displaying.

As Davies held Melinda's hand in a soft grip, he spoke again, "Is this the part where I kiss the back of your hand while looking into your eyes and saying some corny romantic shit that is supposed to make you swoon over me?" he spoke laughingly with laughing eyes.

This actually managed to bring a soft smile that lit up Melinda's face in a different way than the cold beauty vibe that was radiating from her before.

"Oh, look, she can smile," Davies spoke in a surprised tone as he looked at the slightly smiling beauty, but the smile immediately disappeared as soon as Davies mentioned it.

"You have quite the sense of humor, Mr. Lake," Melinda spoke with a lighter tone than before as she removed her hand from Davies's already released grip.

"Please call me Davies, it feels weird having a big sister call me so formally," Davies immediately spoke to dissuade her from calling him so formally. 

His reason for his half-hearted attempts at flirting with her which finally made her smile and loosen up with him was due to him making the moves to establish a relationship that was not romantically inclined like what almost every other man that she had met tried to establish with her.

By doing this, he had already separated himself from the other hordes of men she had met in her life, and whenever she remembered him, she'd think of him as a playful person who had made her mood lighter and made her laugh.

Davies was going for the "bestie" route rather than wholeheartedly trying to woo her and his reasons for doing so was that a relationship that blooms from a friendship was usually longer lasting and left a very deep impression on both sides, or in this case on Melinda's side, Davies did not have enough emotions to care about friendship and love.

Anyway, talking about the "bestie" route, Davies had already planned a series of events to happen in the future and he would only be able to "come to her aid" if he had a friendship type of relationship with her rather than a rival of the protagonist in trying to woo her.

It was very likely that if he decided to compete with Lee Jung to get into a romantic relationship with Melinda, she may end up falling for Lee Jung, and very quickly at that because the villain in conventional stories was usually there not only to serve as a source of free exp for the protagonist but also there to constantly boost the development of the relationship between the protagonist and the heroine… or heroines as the case may be.

But, If he was acting as a close friend of the heroine, he could sabotage their relationship behind the scenes while also constantly defending the protagonist and making the heroine fall even harder for him until the point where he would destroy their love in one fell swoop, after which he as the close friend would become her shoulder to cry on and as the old adage says,

"A shoulder to cry on, is a dick to ride on…" so he'd keep his shoulders dry and his dick hard until the opportune moment.

Once he was able to take advantage of the opportune moment, then the situation was pretty much already in the bag for him.

He snickered internally wondering as he thought of what was to come, but outwardly, he had taken the opportunity to continue chatting with Melinda without once diverting the situation towards a romantic direction.

They spoke about different things, though it was mostly Davies doing the talking and Melinda majorly listening and laughing at a lot of dumb corny jokes that were so bad that they couldn't get a clown to laugh if they were said by a random person, but Davies had a way of delivering his words that they would make even a dead dog laugh and though Melinda had a high resistance to things like that, she had a brighter look on her face than the frigid one she had when she had arrived at the banquet.

Melinda's impression of Davies was currently at an all-time high as it was the first time in forever that she had been this relaxed with anybody of the opposite sex or even the same sex for that matter.

The ease at which he spoke so calmly with her and his corny, wack-ass jokes reminded her of her long-deceased brother, who had also been her best friend and she felt a warm feeling in her heart for the first time in a long time.

'As expected, going down this route was the best option for the frigid ice queen-like beauty,' Davies thought to himself upon seeing the brighter look on her face.

After dawdling for a long while, Davies thought it was time for them to go and meet the host of the banquet, as after all, they had been invited to the banquet and it wouldn't be good if they didn't at least congratulate the celebrant… though Davies was more interested in meeting Lee Jung while being in the company of Melinda.

He smiled darkly as he thought of the kind of expression that Lee Jung would have on his face when he saw them together.