The next day, six newly hired bodyguards arrived with Martin and Rey. During the test, among the six of them, Nikolai topped it all. Since he was the best among the rest, he was assigned to look after Cayenne and the kids, though the kids only came secondary to her safety.
Nikolai, although he looked intimidating, he was the kind of person who doesn't follow someone blindly. He has opinion of his own and he would really speak the words in his mind. Surprisingly, he wasn't asking about the benefits of working for Cayenne and Stefan like others did in the past.
He was just mostly concerned of his day off and the restrictions that came with it.
Then, Cayenne remembered the special identity of this person. Money was irrelevant to him. "If you have other concerns, just let me know. I'm not really busy. It would be great to get clarifications now instead of making some mistakes due to ignorance. My husband isn't very forgiving when it comes to safety measures."
"I don't have questions for now, but I will certainly ask if there is one in the future," said one of the bodyguards who sat next to Nikolai.
"I do have a question unrelated to work, though. Maybe you have answers to them, too."
"What is it?"
"What is the history of this place?" Nikolai asked which bewildered Cayenne. Her first impression of Nikolai took a drastic change. She never thought that a man like him would be so interested in history.
Cayenne was unsure what he meant and it was obvious on her face. "Did you mean the history of this mansion? Or this city?"
"Ah! I mean the city. I heard this was once part of a kingdom."
Cayenne thought about it and tried to recall the information she learned from her history class in the past. Thankfully, there were a lot of people present at this moment. They answered Nikolai's inquiry without any hesitations because they thought it was just out of curiosity.
They talked for almost an hour, before Stefan called them for another conference meeting.
Aside from the arrival of the new bodyguards, today was also Latticia's birthday which was the reason why a lot of people were gathering in Cayenne's home. The Sugo family were there to celebrate this day with the only daughter in the family, though they couldn't tell the truth to Ferdinand since his son just died not long ago. At the same time, Stefan didn't want to miss his mother's birthday.
It was her first birthday that he got to celebrate with her.
In the kitchen, Jessie and Stanley were cooking food for lunch with the helpers and they made sure to cook a lot of Latticia's favorite food. It's been a while since she came back to A City and with her son's connections and Dr. Albert's monitoring, she could now move quite a lot and she could talk properly as well.
"Don't worry. Your dear cousin is someone who can't be messed with."
Unknown to them, Cayenne was already standing right behind them and heard a little bit of their conversation. She quickly wrapped her arms around their necks that startled both men.
"God!" Kyle exclaimed with his hand on his chest. "Don't startle me like that."
"You won't be startled if you weren't being secretive over here. What are you guys talking about?" Cayenne inquired and let go of them. "You seemed really interested about Nikolai."
"We're just wondering why he was curious about the history of the city and La Granja," Dominic answered on behalf of Kyle. "We're not really against him. We're just worried that he would do some and put you in danger."
"Don't think too much about it. My dear husband won't just bring someone into our home without considering all possibilities."
"I said the same thing to him," Kyle added and sighed. "Anyway, let's forget we have this conversation."
"I agree on that," Cayenne said, so Dominic didn't pursue this matter anymore.
***
Inside the study room, Stefan was sitting on his swivel chair while some of the bodyguards stood in different locations to maximize their security measure in guarding him, and others were sitting on the couch.
"My dad died in an accident. However, I already received information that someone was actually planning to kill him. My grandfather was also part of that plan. Currently, my grandpa is staying with us in this mansion but that doesn't mean he is safe. I will be assigning a secondary task to all of you."
"Are going to guard your father?" asked Rey who was standing near the window.
"No, you are going to monitor Julia and Celestine. They're my auntie and cousin," Stefan answered before pressing a file that Tristan sent him. It showed them a map of the entire A City as well as the location of the rented mansion. "Celestine rented a place and that's the one highlighted in red. So far, all of her activities were within the city and it was the same for Julia.
Tomorrow, Tristan will be installing a remote tracker in your device so you would see Julia and Celestine's movement."
Nikolai looked down on the floor and smiled. Stefan was very similar to him in conduct, but unlike him, Stefan made it his priority to protect his loved ones. [Is it the difference in era? Or is it because I wasn't capable enough which was the reason, I kept losing her?]
At this moment, they all thought that Nikolai was listening attentively. They had no idea that he was lost in his own little world.