Looking at the impasse he had gotten himself into, Jean really didn’t know what to do now.
He realized the boy in front of him wasn’t bluffing, even though he wasn’t wearing expensive clothes, the calm and patience that boy displayed made it clear that he was at least capable of exercising some power there, and not just him, but when comparing that against the Sra. Sterling on the other side who was losing it over a simple comment from the girl, the pressure on Jean became even more intense.
Isabella finally took a sip of her nectar and looked at the waiter with a small, sharp smile.
"We came here to have a pleasant dinner, not to take part in this hysterical woman’s class meltdowns. Bring us our Hydra Fillet and tell Mrs. Sterling to sit down before her little show becomes the last social event of her life on this planet." Isabella said as if she were giving orders to one of her own employees.
Mrs. Sterling was about to shout again when Jean, feeling like he was stepping into a dangerous minefield, did something unexpected. He lowered his hand, bowed deeply to Lohan and Isabella, and stepped back three paces.
"My... my sincere apologies." Between the attitudes of those two, Jean realized that as a mere waiter he had no standing to speak, and that depending on which side he decided to take, he would inevitably offend the other side, and at this moment, he couldn’t afford that, so tactfully, he decided to step away and bring someone with more authority to handle this. "I... I’ll check on the order in the kitchen right away. Excuse me."
The waiter nearly ran off, leaving Mrs. Sterling standing in the middle of the hall, trembling with indignation and at a loss for words.
She looked around and realized the other guests were now watching her with a mix of curiosity and judgment, noticing that the young couple in beggar’s clothes seemed to hold more authority than she did.
Lohan turned his attention back to Isabella, realizing she was actually enjoying the situation. "Bella, I thought you were just going to show your Vance identity and end this in a second."
Isabella laughed, a light, melodious laugh that dissolved the tension at the table, then replied. "And miss the chance to watch you use that ’evil Slime’ aura of yours out in the real world? Halon, it was way more fun watching you intimidate a waiter than just ending this farce the easy way. Besides, I wanted to see how far your patience would go."
Lohan laughed and went back to eating.
The waiter Jean walked away from Lohan and Isabella’s table with quick steps and heavy breathing, feeling as though he had just escaped a dangerous death sentence.
Cold sweat still ran down his back, soaking the silk shirt of his uniform. He crossed the hall toward the black marble counter where the manager of Xylos-Zero, Mr. Dupont, was watching the movement of the guests with a hawk like gaze, having just arrived there after speaking with a pair of the establishment’s regular customers.
Dupont was a man who exuded a refined arrogance, wearing a metallic gray suit even more expensive than the clothes of most of the guests present. When he saw Jean approaching with a look of panic, he frowned and adjusted the digital monocle on his right eye.
"Sir... we have a problem at table twelve." Jean whispered, leaning over the counter, quickly explaining how it had started, then said. "The customers in the urban clothes... the young man threatened me in a veiled way. He said that if I threw them out, there would be a mass firing tomorrow. His aura... it wasn’t that of an ordinary person."
Mr. Dupont raised his left eyebrow, looking at Jean with a doubt loaded with disdain.
He shifted his gaze to Lohan and Isabella’s table, studying Lohan’s worn overcoat and the red haired girl’s utility jacket. A scornful smile appeared on his thin lips.
"Jean, you’ve been at this establishment for a year and you still let yourself be intimidated by tricks from street thugs like that?" Dupont asked, his voice coming out low and cutting. "People like that often resort to bravado and empty, vulgar threats when they feel cornered in environments that don’t belong to them. They probably used some bypass on the reservation system or got hold of a stolen credit card. There’s no world in which people who dress like beggars like those two have any authority over Xylos-Zero."
"But sir, the pressure he exerted..." Jean tried to argue, but Dupont silenced him with a curt gesture of his gloved hand.
"Enough. You failed to maintain decorum and allowed Mrs. Sterling to be insulted. Go to the kitchen and help with the inventory check. I’ll handle these intruders myself."
Dupont came out from behind the counter, walking across the hall with an upright, arrogant posture.
Passing a few meters from Lohan and Isabella’s table, he didn’t even glance at their faces, casting only a passing glance at the floor, as if checking whether the dirt from their clothes had stained the shine of the marble.
The manager headed first to Mrs. Sterling’s table.
He bowed deeply, far more exaggeratedly than etiquette required, and adopted an expression of deep contrition.
"My most sincere and humble apologies, Madame Sterling." Dupont said, his voice heavy with a disgusting subservience, clearly fawning but one that pleased the woman immensely.
"The employee who attended to you is new and didn’t know how to handle the situation with the rigor a citizen of your lineage deserves. I assure you the error will be corrected immediately and that those... individuals will be removed so that the aroma of your meal is no longer contaminated by their presence."
Those words sounded like a beautiful melody to the woman’s ears; at that moment, what she wanted most was to regain the prestige she had lost, so, wearing an even more scornful smile, she looked at the young couple with disdain, as if asking them, "And now, how are you going to deal with this?"