The waiter, a young man named Jean who prided himself on his ability to maintain the decorum of Xylos-Zero, approached the woman’s table with a professional nod and asked, "Yes, Mrs. Sterling? Is something wrong with the service?"
"Everything is wrong with the atmosphere, boy." The woman replied, pointing discreetly, but with a gesture loaded with venom, at Lohan and Lisa’s table. "Those two over there... they’re clearly intruders. Look how they’re dressed. They’re bothering all the legitimate customers of this establishment. I demand that you get rid of them right now, or I’ll make sure to create a scandal that will cost this place its operating license. You know very well who my brother is on the Urban Planning Council."
Jean felt a drop of cold sweat run down his back and looked toward Lohan and Isabella’s table.
He had already noticed the aesthetic discrepancy between them, but the reservation system had shown that their credit was valid and of a high level, even though their identity was hidden.
However, his fear of the Sterling family’s influence outweighed service protocol. One word from that woman could end his career and even close the restaurant, if he handled this in an unsatisfactory way, Jean knew his life would practically be over.
But at the same time, a possibility came to his mind. If he handled this in a satisfactory way, he would practically guarantee his career here, maybe even open up the possibility of a manager position at one of the franchise’s other restaurants!
Jean sighed discreetly, straightening his bow tie, and walked with heavy steps to Lohan and Isabella’s table.
Isabella, who had heard every word Mrs. Sterling said thanks to her hearing amplified through her integration with the fox, kept her gaze fixed on her glass of stellar nectar.
She showed no reaction, but a cold, dangerous smile began to form at the corner of her lips. Lohan, noticing the waiter approaching and feeling the tension rise in the air, set his crystal utensils down on the table.
"Excuse me, sirs." Jean began, his voice coming out forcedly polite, but loaded with a tension that betrayed his discomfort. "We regret to inform you that there was a technical error in our reservation system. This table, unfortunately, was already assigned to a private event that will begin shortly. For that reason, we’ll need to ask you to leave. We won’t charge for the meal consumed so far as compensation."
Isabella slowly raised her golden eyes, fixing them on the waiter.
The gleam in them was so icy that Jean felt as if he’d walked into a snowstorm.
She didn’t look at the employee with anger, or annoyance at having her pleasant dinner interrupted.
Then her gaze shifted to Mrs. Sterling, who was staring at her with a mocking expression of superiority, waiting for the moment the "poor" would be humiliated.
Isabella simply rolled her eyes, a gesture of pure disregard that irritated the woman at the next table. She went back to focusing on her nectar, completely ignoring the waiter’s presence, as if he had become invisible.
Jean, realizing the girl wouldn’t be cooperative and feeling the pressure of Mrs. Sterling’s stare burning into his back, decided to change tactics.
He turned to Lohan, imagining that the boy from the Lower Zone would be a much easier target to intimidate than that girl who, surprisingly, exuded airs similar to those of the spoiled young women of the Upper Zone.
Compared to her, the boy with the more developed physique seemed much simpler to deal with.
Jean straightened his posture, trying to use his height and the restaurant’s authority to pressure Lohan.
"Sir, I was clear." The waiter said, his tone now much firmer and more aggressive. "This restaurant is frequented by the elite of Eden-3. Your presence here is causing discomfort, and our management has decided it’s best for you to leave immediately. If there’s any resistance, I’ll be forced to call the sector’s private security, and I guarantee they won’t be as polite as I am. Please, stand up and follow me to the exit now."
Lohan didn’t move an inch.
He merely tilted his head slightly to the side, watching the waiter with cold, subtly mocking eyes. There was no fear in them, nor the explosive rage of gang members that Jean had heard about. There was only a calm and a confidence that seemed to weigh down on the air around the table.
"You said our presence is causing discomfort?" Lohan asked, his voice coming out calm, deep, and dangerously steady. "I believe the only discomfort here comes from that table right over there, where a frustrated woman is trying to use you as a tool to smother her own inferiority complex."
Jean froze, shocked by the audacity of the comment, even more so because the surrounding tables had suddenly gone silent, clearly hearing Lohan’s remark and waiting to see a good show.
Mrs. Sterling, hearing the words Lohan hadn’t even bothered to disguise, stood up abruptly, her face turning red with fury at being exposed so directly by someone she considered a worm.
"How dare you?!" She shouted, finally drawing the attention of the entire hall. "Waiter, call security now! I want that trash out of here in pieces!"
Lohan looked at Jean, who was about to trigger the security alarm on his wrist, and allowed a faint trace of his killing intent to leak into his gaze, the same aura that had made Oscar tremble with dread and had taken down elite scouts in Elysium.
The temperature around the table seemed to drop several degrees, and Jean felt an instinctive chill that froze his fingers over the button.
"Buddy, being completely honest, I’d recommend you take a deep breath and rethink your priorities." Lohan continued, keeping his gaze fixed on the waiter. "You’re threatening to throw out people who have enough credit to buy this restaurant ten times over, without even bothering to try to find out these people’s identity, just to please someone whose only relevance is her brother’s last name."
"If you press that button, the scandal you’re so afraid of won’t be about our leaving, it’ll be about the mass firing that will happen here tomorrow when my partner’s true identity is revealed."
The waiter hesitated, his eyes shifting between Mrs. Sterling’s fury, Lohan’s oppressive calm, and Isabella’s even more frightening indifference.