Kingsley was not in the mood for their attempts to wheedle out of this.
"Scram! Another word out of any of you, and you'll be sharing the same fate as Kyle!"
His words sealed their fate, and all at once, their wailing ceased.
A mere second later, the bunch of wealthy young men crawled off their knees and stumbled toward their cars.
Meanwhile, when the spectating crowd noticed that all the others had left, they quickly scampered off in fright too.
Soon, all was quiet at Block Jasmine's front entrance.
The only people remaining were Kingsley, Courtney, and Elaine.
At last, Courtney asked the burning question, "Kingsley, what on earth is going on? Why are the Maslows terrified of you? Who are you now? What have you been doing for the past ten years?"
Courtney listed out question after question in rapid fire, so much so that Kingsley commented a little in defeat, "Courtney, which question am I supposed to answer?"
"All of them, in order of questioning."
"Uhh…" He thought about it for a moment before explaining with a grin, "Will is scared of me because of Reene! He was in the same class as Reene back in college. I'm just reaping the benefits of being associated with her. As for the other questions… it's all a long story. I'll fill you in when we get a chance to sit down and have a good talk."
Kingsley kept in mind that Courtney's intellect was far beyond everyone else's. If he tried to spin a tall tale for her, like the way he did for Alice and Serena, she would probably suss him out at once.
Therefore, he chose to buy himself some time and evaded her questions instead.
Courtney's large, bright eyes narrowed slightly. "Oh, Kingsley. You're only delaying the inevitable, and it won't work forever!"
However, before Kingsley could respond to that, she added, "Still, I won't force you to give me an answer right away. I can wait until you're willing to tell me the truth."
He sighed in relief after that and commented, "Courtney, you're such an understanding person!"
Courtney flashed him a sweet, dimpled smile. "That being said, why did you come here today, Kingsley? Did you come to look for me? Have you met up with Reene and the others?"
"I've met Reene, yeah." Kingsley nodded before looking over to Elaine. "I came to Solaris University because I wanted to meet Professor Albright."
"You want to meet my dad?" she asked in surprise. "Are you acquainted with him?"
He shook his head. "No, but I would like to get acquainted."
Elaine's expression was a little sheepish. "You probably know that my dad's personality's a bit weird, and he's rather bad-tempered too. He locks himself in his study every day to work on his writings… and rarely ever interacts with any outsiders…"
She noticed Kingsley looking a little crestfallen, so she hurriedly added, "How's this? Since it's Sunday tomorrow, I'll head home tonight and bring it up to my dad. We'll see how it goes."
"Thanks a lot, Miss Albright," he said with sincerity.
If Elaine managed to help him secure a meeting with Vincent, then it would be a breakthrough in his quest to find The Anonymous.
Courtney had a peculiar look on her face as she eyed both Kingsley and Elaine. Soon, she commented suggestively, "So… You two aren't a couple, huh?"
Elaine blushed. "I-I just wanted to help him as thanks for helping me deal with Calvin back at the restaurant…"
"Sure, sure. I get it!" Courtney's eyes glinted teasingly as she grinned and said, "Kingsley's such a fine and handsome man! Loads of people would decide to come over and help him. Hehehe…"
By now, Kingsley realized that Courtney was about to launch into another one of her monologues again, so he quickly waved his hand to cut her off. "That's enough, Courtney. You should head back to your room before the dorms are locked for curfew. I'll come and meet you again tomorrow."
"Oh, fine. I'll head up now." Courtney laughed and ran back to the dorm entrance before calling out, "Kingsley, come and meet me at nine tomorrow morning. I'll buy you breakfast!"
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