Chapter 51 - 51

"John, where are you taking us?" Ian asked as he looked out of the window. It was dark outside and there wasn't much that he could see.

"Shortcut." John simply said as he continued to keep his eyes on the road.

"John, there are no other cars here!" Camilla shouted as she began to panic.

"No signal either." Ian told Camilla and John as he took out his phone. "This better not be another test." Camilla grumbled.

"The two of you are too high strung." John said with a laugh as they rounded a corner.

Ian was surprised to see one of the old gates to the ancestral part of the city.

He was the familiar old mossy bricks that covered the wall around the old part of the capital. It seemed to be one of the old back entrances that servants and merchants used to pass through.

"Oh." Ian said as they were stopped by a policeman at the gate.

"Don't worry." John said with a laugh. "I've worked with the Reyes for a really long time, the policeman is just making sure we don't have evil plans. Like the one you were suspecting me of just a few minutes ago." John said with a laugh as he rolled down his window.

"Ah, Mr. John, I didn't recognize this car." The policeman said as he eyed the car.

"Oh ,right, let me introduce you to a few people." John said as he quickly remembered Marco's instructions.

The window next to Camilla rolled down, and the policeman moved to check who the passengers were.

"These are Ian and Camilla." John explained. "Ian might be a little familiar to you, he lived in the city."

"Lim residence, right?" The policeman asked Ian, catching him off guard.

"Ummm, yeah, how did you know?" Ian asked.

"We keep tabs on all of the residents of the old city. We need to know who can and can't be moving freely around. So we more or less know who lives where." The policeman explained. "So who are they?" He asked John.

"New assistants, like Marco." John said nonchalantly.

"Oh, got it." The policeman said with a nod. "Better keep my eye out for them then." He said with a grin.

"Yep, we need to get going, event and all." John said as he rolled up the windows and continued to drive into the old city.

Everything in this part of the capital seemed frozen in time. The buildings were mostly over a hundred years old, and the streets had only been asphalted recently.

Ian knew that the Reyes Family owned the largest piece of property at the northernmost section of the old city. He rarely ventured there since the only things to see where the old, sprawling mansions of the extremely wealthy.

"Here we are." John announced as they were greeted by a wall covered with ivy, it looked similar to the outside of Ian's home, all the old houses here had walls like these.

When they finally reached a break in the wall, it was a black gate that slowly swung open.

John turned and entered the gate, the guards seemed to be expecting them because this time no one stopped them.

From where they were, Ian saw the huge mansion that was the Reyes home.

There was a long, circular, grand driveway that led up to the mansion.

"Welcome to the Reyes Mansion." John announced as they pulled up to the entrance. "Wow, we still have ten minutes, nice."

"Thanks John. Sorry about what happened earlier." Ian said. He was quite embarrassed to have thought that John was trying to take them somewhere else.

"No worries." John said with a laugh. "I should have explained, and if it makes you feel better, if I were in your position I would have thought you were trying to kidnap me or something."

"Anyway, thanks." Ian said as he stepped out of the car.

He heard Camilla mumble he thanks before getting off as well.

As they made their way into the house, a maid greeted them.

"Mr. So is waiting for you in the study." The maid said as she gestured for them to follow her.

Ian and Camilla couldn't help but marvel at how beautiful the Reyes Mansion was both inside and out.

The exterior gave everyone an old city vibe, just like the surrounding area it was in. But the inside was a whole different story.

It was the melting pot of both the old and the new. It had accents of it's ancient historical past, but most of the floor, ceiling, and fixtures were mostly modern.

"Those are the Reyes Heirs over the years." The maid explained as they passed a hall of images and paintings.

Ian knew that the Reyeses were a very old family, he just didn't expect them to be this old.

At the end of the hall Ian spotted a photo of a woman that eerily looked a lot like Marie Mendiola. Compared to the image next to it, it didn't look too old. They seemed to have been taken a few years apart. He took a mental note to ask Marco when he got the chance.

The portrait next to the woman was one of Emilio Reyes. He looked much younger in this photo, maybe in his thirties.

The last frame in the hall was empty, Ian assumed that this was reserved for the current Reyes Heir. What confused him was the fact that the Reyes family worked so hard to keep its future CEO a secret.

"Mr. So." The maid called out as she knocked on the door.

"They are here already?" Ian heard Marco call out.

"Yes, sir." The maid replied in a respectful tone.

"Let them in, and bring us some food and coffee." Marco called out as the maid pushed the door open and let them in.

"Ah, it's good that you're early." Marco praised. "Here is a list of all of the guests, I suggest you get familiar."

Ian and Camilla looked at each other in confusion.

How were they supposed to memorize a list of nineteen families in the span of a few minutes?