There were two other cars on the driveway leading to the garage. Hiro walked me to the large wooden front door before a middle-aged butler opened the door just in time for us to stride in. The butler's hair was white on one side and jet-black on the other.
Unfortunately, that was not the most bizarre view in the house. Eccentric, classical, and avant-garde described the interior perfectly. None of the furniture, decorations, nor flooring seemed to match a singular theme, but they complimented each other well.
"Welcome home Master Hiro, your brothers are waiting in the west wing," the butler bowed.
"Thank you, Makoto. This is Ren," he introduced me.
I bowed and followed Hiro to what must had been the west wing. The interior of the house was even bigger. We walked through a ruby-colored hall decorated with paintings of the family.
The high ceiling made it feel like we were going through an endless tunnel. Finally, we reached the end of the hall where the cupola-shaped ceiling sheltered a circular meeting room.
The table and chairs were arranged accordingly and there were no windows. The walls were surrounded with portraits of who I assumed to be the living members of the family.
"Koshiro. You made it," said a man in a navy suit and a matching tie.
"Brothers, this is Ren. She will be helping us starting today," Hiro took a seat at one of the empty chairs.
"Hi, my name is Ren Anderson. I will try my best in assisting Hiro," I bowed politely before sitting on a chair next to my host.
"Very well. Now that everyone is here, we can start the discussion and report," said another man with an eagle tattoo on his right hand.
"I have father's updated will sealed and stored in my safe. My team held a meeting yesterday. We have collected the most recent movements made by our opponent. They seem to be only observing us so far.
"Our team found at least two agents following each person in this room at a time. We recently found out that they have purchased the property opposite of our house and set up cameras pointing at our direction. The details are in this document," the first man tossed a file across the table.
Hiro flipped through some of the pages and it showed photographs and times in which they were taken. One of the pictures was of me going out of the hotpot restaurant the previous night taken from what seemed to be a bush.
"Are there any suspicions over our people?" Hiro asked.
"No, I know these people. I made sure our agents were more discreet."
"I just need to make sure that our strategy is not compromised," my host closed the file.
"As for security, I have stationed bodyguards for everyone in the family. I made sure Suki stayed with mom and my team is guarding father's room. I trust that you can protect yourselves," the tattooed man scanned the room.
"I'll take care of Ren's safety and compensations," Hiro announced.
"It's been taken care of by our team. Ms. Ren, we sent our team to your apartment to prevent breach of privacy and information by our opponent. We can't afford to be too cautious," the second man announced.
"Oh," I tried to hide my wary and surprise.
"Will she be fine staying in an apartment alone?" my friend asked.
"We haven't detected any physical threats so far. I think we can focus on protecting our reputation for now. But when the time comes, we will be ready," the second man reassured.
'When the time comes' didn't sound reassuring at all. They were preparing for direct attacks from their own uncle. Each of them must had had an idea of what he was capable of and there I was sitting cluelessly. I wasn't aware of how dangerous this mission could get. They might stage an accident or threaten people to do their bidding.
The meeting went on for another half an hour before the team disbanded to their respective sides of the house. Hiro and I headed south to his quarter of the house. Yes, the whole quarter of the land was his.
He had his own gym, office, library, room, and garden. It took about 10 minutes to reach his room on the second floor from the West wing office. I took a seat on a bean bag next to his window as I read a copy of the reports his brothers and him had gathered.
'You have my profile in here," I looked up at him sitting on the foot of his bed.
"I put the profiles of my family in your document too," he pulled out his laptop and started to fiddle with it.
"So, your brothers know all this about me?"
"Yeah, we gathered information about you prior to your recruitment."
"You're saying that like it's normal."
"It's normal for employers to do that. But I didn't do your profiling myself because it'd be weird to do that to a friend," he gave an awkward smile before going back to his laptop.
"What's my first task as your employee then?" I put the files on my lap.
"I guess today will be your orientation day. Get familiar with the people in those files. It might be worth something to know a little about everyone if you're gonna help me with making strategies."
"Okay, boss."
"Sorry if I'm not good at this. I'm used to working with trained personals. I've never trained my own employee before."
"You're not too shabby. Being a boss definitely suits you better than a boyfriend," I teased.
"Thanks, but that didn't make me feel any better. And we don't have to pretend to be a couple as long as we're in this house."
"I was just kidding. I think you'd be a splendid partner for someone one day."
His eyes lit up for a split second before he went back to smiling shyly at his computer. I managed to read through his family's profile. I'd say it looked like an anime character stat the way he had put it.
The titles were numbered and arranged from oldest to youngest, their 'mugshot' picture was on the top left, their basic biodata was on the right, and a short description was written on the lower half of the paper.