The restaurant was deathly quiet.
No one imagined that Reginald Sterling, instead of backing up Dupont, would actually turn against the manager who was defending him!
But Reginald didn’t care in the slightest about the reaction of the people around him.
"M-Miss Vance... my sincere and deepest apologies!" Reginald begged, his voice coming out hoarse and shaky. "Please, forgive this man’s ignorance and my wife’s stupidity... they don’t know what they’re saying! They have no idea who you are!"
The silence that fell over Xylos-Zero now was even more intense.
It was a shock that paralyzed every customer, every waiter, and above all, Mr. Dupont.
The name "Vance" echoed through the hall like a death sentence.
Dupont felt his knees go weak, his finger, which had been pointing at Isabella moments before, now trembled uncontrollably.
Isabella finally set her glass down on the table and looked at Reginald Sterling with an icy gaze, but with a trace of cruel amusement. "Ah, Mr. Sterling, isn’t it? I believe I’ve heard of you."
Hearing that Isabella even knew who he was, Reginald, who at any other moment would have felt honored by that information, now felt he was in even greater danger... Isabella Vance knew the name of the person who had offended her!
"Y-yes, Miss Vance... but that doesn’t matter right now!" Reginald stammered, his face drenched in sweat. "I just want to make sure you know I had nothing to do with this deplorable behavior!"
Isabella tilted her head, turning her golden eyes toward Mr. Dupont.
The manager stood frozen, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.
All of Dupont’s arrogance had evaporated, replaced by a dread that made his body visibly shrink.
"So, Dupont..." Isabella said, her voice coming out soft, but loaded with an authority that crushed the air around the table. "You were saying something about breaking my bones and throwing me into an incinerator? To be honest, I found your description very creative. I wonder if the Xylos-Zero board of directors, who by coincidence happen to be one of my clients, would appreciate knowing that their manager threatens customers this way."
Mr. Dupont finally dropped to his knees, his hands braced against the cold floor. Tears of pure dread began to well up in his eyes.
"Miss Vance... I... I swear I didn’t know!" Dupont begged, his voice coming out in a broken whisper. "Your clothes... the style... I thought you were impostors! Please, have mercy! I have a family to support!"
Isabella let out a small chuckle, turning her gaze back to Lohan, who just shook his head with a crooked smile. "Hayes, what do you think? Does he seem to deserve mercy?"
Lohan crossed his arms, looking at Dupont with an indifference even colder than the one he showed monsters in Elysium. "Being completely honest, Bella, I don’t think he’s even understood yet that the problem wasn’t him doing this to someone poorly dressed, but the prejudice and disgusting attitude toward anyone at all. If we let him stay here, Xylos-Zero will keep being a sanctuary for people like Mrs. Sterling, which, honestly, is a waste of such good cuisine."
Reginald Sterling, seeing a chance to save his own skin, turned to Dupont with renewed fury. "You heard Miss Vance’s companion! You’re a disgrace to this sector, Dupont! I will personally make sure you never get a job again, not even cleaning bathrooms in the Lower Zone!"
Mrs. Sterling, at the next table, was in shock.
She looked at Reginald and then at Isabella, realizing that the girl she’d called "trash" was, in fact, the person who held her family’s financial fate in the snap of a finger.
She tried to stand to apologize, but her legs wouldn’t respond, and she just fell back into her chair, her face pale and her eyes wide.
Isabella slowly stood up, adjusting her utility jacket with an elegance that made even simple clothes like those look like true designer wear.
She looked at Reginald Sterling for a second, which made the man shrink back.
"Mr. Sterling, I believe I don’t need you to handle my own problems, in fact, I’d recommend you worry about your own problems first." Isabella declared, her voice icy. "As for you, Dupont... don’t worry about being fired. I’ve already sent a notice to the owner of this building. Xylos-Zero will undergo a complete change of management starting tomorrow."
She then turned to Lohan, and her gaze instantly softened, becoming once again the Lisa he knew back in Mythlorien. "Hayes, I think my appetite has fled this place. How about that barbecue I never got to enjoy that day?"
Lohan stood up and straightened his black overcoat, feeling the atmosphere calm down as Isabella’s authority settled in absolutely. "The food here really is delicious, but I agree with you, we can come back once the management is better chosen. Let’s go home, I still have some great cuts of meat for the barbecue."
They walked toward the exit, passing by Dupont who remained kneeling on the floor, and by Mrs. Sterling who seemed to have aged ten years in ten minutes.
All the other customers in the restaurant kept their heads down, not daring to meet the gaze of the couple who had just shown that true sovereignty needs no adornment to be exercised.
When they reached the reception platform, the valet, who had looked at them with contempt earlier, now stood in a bow so rigid it looked like a statue.
He handed Lohan the Porsche’s virtual keys with trembling hands.
Lohan got into the driver’s seat and waited for Isabella to settle in beside him.
As soon as the doors closed and the acoustic insulation cut off the sound of the restaurant, Isabella let out a long sigh and allowed a genuine smile to appear on her lips.
"Alright, Halon... I admit that was fun. But to be honest, seeing Reginald’s face when he realized who I was... now that was the grand finale I’d been waiting for."
Lohan laughed, turning on the Porsche’s ion turbines. "You really don’t know how to play nice, Bella. But I have to admit, your ’Ice Queen’ aura is frighteningly effective out in the real world. I just hope the next restaurant you want to take me to doesn’t need a diplomatic intervention from the Vance Group."
Isabella tilted her head back, closing her golden eyes for a moment as the car gained altitude, leaving the lights of Xylos-Zero behind. "I make no promises, Hayes. After all, the stars don’t always rest in peace, sometimes they need to snuff out a few annoying lights along the way."
Lohan accelerated the vehicle, cutting through the sky of Eden-3 toward his penthouse.
Suddenly, Lohan remembered something. "Wait, I don’t think we paid the bill!"
Isabella laughed even harder, and without opening her eyes, replied. "Why would I pay the bill at my own restaurant?"
Hearing that, Lohan’s eyes went wide and he laughed even harder.
Dupont had no idea that the boss he’d been trying to please, the one he thought had been backing his attitude the whole time, was actually the very girl he had humiliated so much, a girl who simply liked to reward good employees.
Gifts and rewards like those were something she handed out across the many industries she controlled. She hadn’t even known Dupont existed, but now that she did, she’d have to find out just what shoddy work one of her secretaries had been doing.
Without realizing it, one more person had been added to her watch list, walking toward an uncertain fate.