Chapter 82 You Call This a Restaurant?

Iris’s arrogant tone made her look like a rich young lady who was used to throwing money around to break the rules.

If it were anyone else, no amount of money would be enough. Anyone who could book the highest-class private room on the VIP floor had money, power, and influence. The restaurant wouldn’t damage its long-term interests for a little money.

But Iris was a special case. The restaurant wasn’t crazy enough to argue with her. Of course, it couldn’t offend other people for no reason just because of her, either.

“Miss, I can make an exception and let you two go up there to negotiate with the person who booked the dining room. This is the biggest concession we can make.”

Before Iris could say anything, King spoke first. Right now, what he cared about was how much this damn meal would cost.

“Then how will the payment work? Is there an extra dining room fee?”

“We won’t charge you for now. We’ll calculate the cost once you two have chosen a room.”

The middle-aged man was extremely tactful. Although he wasn’t directly sucking up to her, everything he did seemed to be an attempt to flatter Iris.

“Fine.”

Iris nodded and glanced at King. She pulled him along by the hand to stop him from saying anything else. They were here to eat, not argue about the price.

“Don’t worry about this little bit of money. You’re going to be the one paying today anyway. Since you’ve got that black card, you should spend a little more, shouldn’t you?”

“Mm… Huh?”

Normally, Iris should have been the one saying she’d pay. After all, she was the one who had brought him here.

“You’ve got it wrong. You should be the one paying, not me.”

No matter how much money he had, King still hadn’t really gotten used to being rich. There was no way he’d accept spending at least 200,000 dollars on a single meal.

Besides feeling reluctant to spend the money, he had another reason. His arrogance made him feel like an idiot for spending that much just to eat.

“Bullshit. How could I be wrong? You have that black card, so when else are you going to use it if not now? You’re freeloading at my place, so making you pay for one meal is perfectly reasonable. I haven’t even asked you to compensate me for the damage you caused to my house.”

With King around, Iris obviously wanted him to pay. This amount of money meant nothing to her, but it was more fun to make him pay.

What did I even destroy? Damn it! Valentina was clearly the culprit.

At that moment, King really wanted to argue with her until he won. But before he could say anything, she had already dragged him up close to the VIP floor.

On the ninth floor, the middle-aged man didn’t watch the two of them leave. He even made a gesture of covering his ears, even though it didn’t mean much.

Secrets were accidentally revealed in restaurants all the time, but they weren’t meant to be heard. Snooping around and listening to random things would only bring trouble upon himself.

The moment King stepped onto the VIP floor, he was left dumbfounded by the dazzling splendor of the place.

This floor was twice as tall as the ninth floor. The walls were clad in precious marble with pure gold trim, while the ceiling was decorated with exquisite carvings and rare antique crystal chandeliers.

Diamonds here were practically like pebbles. They weren’t very large, but they were everywhere, making every corner sparkle.

There were also countless huge, uncut gemstones. Every type and color imaginable was available, as if they were cheap goods sold by the ton.

Things that should have been carefully preserved as priceless treasures in museums were scattered everywhere.

Ancient paintings by legendary masters, one-of-a-kind sculptures that were thousands of years old, and antiques representing the existence of long-fallen dynasties…

And that wasn’t all. There were plenty of things King didn’t even know what to call. Their sheer extravagance was so obvious that even an idiot could tell they were worth a fortune.

“Damn it, you call this a restaurant? Did the owner just rob the whole world before opening this place?”

Looking at all the rare treasures, especially antiques worth as much as national treasures, King’s eyelids kept twitching.

Other than robbing people, he couldn’t think of anyone who could collect all these things and gather them in one place.

Even Britain, back when it was the empire on which the sun never set, probably wasn’t this extravagant.

“It’s not stolen. And the restaurant doesn’t own them either. It’s just keeping them safe for others. Academy members come from all over the world, so it’s normal for them to lend a few things to the best restaurant, right?”

Most of the antiques here were worthy of having entire articles written about them in textbooks, yet Iris talked about them so casually, as if they were a joke.

Looking at Iris’s indifferent face, King pursed his lips and shook his head. With just his eyes, he was calling her an uncultured swine.

“You fucking dare look at me like that? You have a death wish?”

Before she could even finish speaking, she drove an elbow into King’s side. That contemptuous look made the veins on her forehead bulge.

“Hey, be careful.”

Before seeing these things, King hadn’t thought he’d care about them, but now things were different.

He had seen many of these antiques before because they were so famous. Just the fact that they resembled things he’d considered important before transmigrating meant he wouldn’t destroy them.

“Tsk, I didn’t expect a bastard like you to care so much about antiques.”

“Of course. Antiques are the remaining traces that let us see humanity’s continuous development throughout different eras. Compared to those shiny things, I still value antiques more.”

Obviously, precious metals were far more practical than antiques. But so what? King didn’t care. He decided what was more important based on his own interests.

“Hmph, who doesn’t know that? You’re only interested because this is your first time seeing them. If you saw them every day, they wouldn’t be anything special.”

As she dragged King along, Iris snorted coldly. With that little bit of knowledge he had, what right did he have to act like he was lecturing her?