In the end, Jake really couldn’t stop himself from confirming if Alexander had really managed to get an invitation to the ‘Golden Crown’, and how he managed to do so.
But while Jake had convinced himself that he was only doing it to prevent a misunderstanding between them, and he had the right to know anyway, Alexander clearly didn’t think so.
The dark-haired man gave his ‘friend’ a cold look. “Jake… don’t be an idiot and go asking questions that shouldn’t be asked, alright?”
Not to mention that he would gain nothing by exposing his ‘rule breaking’ by contacting his mother, but even if that hadn’t been a concern, he had no intention to let anyone know he had to beg his mother for the invite.
Even if he knew that this was only a tiny drop in the bucket compared to what he was owed by his parents, Alexander knew that others would look down on him if such a thing was exposed.
Especially that pair of insidious twins who had been eyeing his property for years, and would take any material to mock him or just knock him down a notch.
The blond boy’s expression collapsed completely after hearing Alexander’s words, as not only did they as good as confirmed his ‘conjectures’, but his friend’s attitude also chilled his heart to the core.
Even if he had always taken the initiative to take a step back whenever his ‘big bro’ wanted something, and even took special care of the man’s ego in respect of his talent, being slapped in the face like this really felt like a wake-up call.
Obviously, Alexander would never pay too much attention to his ‘licking dog’, so he never noticed Jake’s abnormality at all.
Jake remained silent all the way to the airport, and only took a few more glances at the wrinkled old man who greeted Alexander with a small bow as soon as he arrived.
But although he didn’t say anything out loud, the blond boy still couldn’t help but frown in his mind. ‘Why is this old man’s attitude towards Alexander so respectful?’
Even if the old man admired Alexander’s talents, was there any need for someone in the older generation to act like this? Simply treating him as an equal would already be flattering enough, right?
Jake didn’t even notice that he had already stopped referring to his friend as ‘big bro Alex’ and started calling him ‘Alexander’ in his mind.
Of course, Alexander himself neither noticed nor cared about either of their attitudes.
In fact, had it not been for his curiosity about the person his mother had sent over to help him out, Alexander wouldn’t have even bothered to personally receive this old man from the airport.
Alexander knew that the old man was one of the ‘best’ of the Nightingale clan, but that didn’t provide him with much of a reference. After all, the Nightingale clan usually only took orders directly from the ‘leader’ of the Gray Wolfe, and that position was still in his father’s hands.
This was the first time he would be getting a ‘top-tier’ subordinate from the Nightingale clan for himself, and Alexander had long since decided to ‘test him out’ to see if he really was as good as his mother claimed.
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Grandpa Brown’s influence in the ‘Martial Arts Alliance’ was naturally quite high, considering he was their leader, but even if he managed to get them all to agree to teach the ‘Old Snake’ an unforgettable lesson, none of them felt very confident in actually getting it done.
After all, the ‘Old Snake’ was known for not only being slippery, but was also extremely hard to find. As long as they dared to blink, he was likely to disappear from right under their eyelids.
Thankfully, the photo from Emilia’s fan girls had given them enough clues of the old man’s next destination.
”Damn! Lord Brown, it seems like your hunch was right all along? Could that conceited-looking man really be some high-level executive of the Gray Wolfe?!”
”Quiet! Do you want to startle the snake?!”
Previously, most of the other members only half-believed grandpa Brown’s conjectures that the old snake was here to target Emilia, and fewer still believed that it had anything to do with the man who was pestering the girl.
They couldn’t be blamed too much since none of them were particularly familiar with the internal details of the Gray Wolfe, and Alexander’s existence had yet to be completely made public.
Naturally, they didn’t care too much about who Alexander really was, as he had already served his purpose by luring the old snake out.
Grandpa Brown and his ‘friends’ followed the three of them as stealthily as they could, intending to ambush their enemy as soon as they arrived at an appropriate location to do so.
Unfortunately, the old snake had already been on high alert since he knew that the time after leaving the airport would be when he was most likely to be discovered.
”We’re being trailed.”
Alexander frowned as he wondered if the old man was just trying to make himself look more capable than he was by scaring him, or if someone was really following them.
But suddenly, he had a brilliant idea. “Jake, take the side route, let’s enter a secluded alley.”
Looking at the strange expression on the old man’s face, Alexander smiled. “Why don’t you deal with the people following us and show me what you’re capable of?”
The blond boy didn’t know what was going on, but despite the dissatisfaction in his heart, did as he was told.
Naturally, the old snake could tell that Alexander wanted to ‘test him out’, but there was nothing he could do about it other than complain in his heart.
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To say that grandpa Brown and his friends were shocked when their targets actually took the initiative to find a suitable place for them to start would be an understatement, but even if it was a trap, it wasn’t one they could resist jumping into!
Grandpa Brown grinned. “Stay on the lookout and cover his escape routes. I’ll go deal with him myself!”
The other members of the alliance looked at each other hesitantly.
”Is that really alright, Lord Brown? This is the old snake we’re talking about, after all!”
”Wouldn’t it be better for us all to go together?”
Dixie’s grandfather gave them an impatient look. “Do you really think I’m too weak?”
The reason the old snake was feared was because of his sneaky tactics and clever skills. In frontal combat, he was far from being what grandpa Brown would consider a ‘fearsome opponent’.
No one could object to him after such a statement, and they could only do their best to cover the old snake’s escape routes.
Naturally, while the old snake had no choice but to confront whoever was following them under the commands of his ‘boss’, he still insisted that Alexander must stay in the car a safe distance away while he sorted everything out.
The dark-haired man didn’t have any objection to his proposal, as long as he could still watch the show from the window, which shouldn’t be a problem considering the alley was long and straight and the sun was bright in the sky.
When an old man in a white obi dropped down in front of the Old Snake, both Jake and Alexander almost jumped from their seats.
While the dark-haired man only gaped, dumbfounded, Jake couldn’t help but curse. “What the fuck? Scared the living shit out of me! Did that old guy just fall from the roof or something?!”
But before they could regain their bearings, the two old men surprisingly started… fighting?!
”We have no grudges or grievances, Lord Brown! Don’t go too far, or do you think the Nightingale clan is so easy to bully?!”
”Hah! Don’t think you can escape alive today!”
Naturally, they couldn’t hear if the two of them got into an argument from all the way over here, or if the old man who fell down accidentally stubbed the other’s toe or something, but they really looked like they wanted to kill each other!
Looking at the two ‘elderly’ people with blurred hands and fists fluttering around the alley, Jake almost fainted from shock. “Shit! Are the old bastards these days so fierce?!”
Not to mention anything else, Jake didn’t believe that even the ‘fighters’ on TV would be able to move like that, but what he saw clearly wasn’t an illusion, was it?
Alexander frowned as he soon got over his shock of the old man falling from the roof, and shook his head in disappointment. ‘As expected, an old man is an old man. Mother must have been blinded by the reputation he managed to gain during his youth, but look, he can’t even beat someone his own age!’
He could only dismiss the idea of getting revenge on the gray-haired lady in advance now. That woman was both young and strong, and was even stronger than regular able-bodied men!
With this useless, elderly ‘helping hand’, if he really tried to do anything… it would just be adding additional medical bills on his side, and maybe even the opportunity at the ‘Golden Crown’ would be lost.
If the Old Snake knew that his boss had already deemed him ‘useless’ just because he couldn’t beat the strongest fighter in Oriana country, he would probably cough out a mouthful of old blood.
But although he didn’t know what Alexander was thinking, when the car he had arrived in actually reversed to leave, the Old Snake was still dumbfounded. “What’s going on, did someone manage to get to the young master without me noticing?!”
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