Thanks to new followers and beta reader floodmaster16.
Hi and sorry for the long, long, long, long, wait. I have been very busy preparing the cosplay and participate at the comics festival, in the past two months there was every weekend in different cities. In a few days I will be in Rome for the steamfest, the bigger steampunk festival in Europe, but in the meantime I found the time to translate what I had written during the summer holidays.
Hope to see you soon!
CHAPTER 20 - Knowing your enemy
The courtyard was crowded, and it was strange because monsters do not usually like to stay in open areas, especially not during the day.
Mavis looked around, but did not recognize anyone. There were many new monsters, and they did a tremendous uproar, some seemed almost like they were fighting. They talked mostly about politics, a subject that had always bored the young vampire, but in that moment she knew that those people were waiting to know if one of the world's most influential monsters, Dracula, would change his political leaning, going from Secret People, who prefer to move away from the human world, to the Humanists, who would like to create a new world of coexistence between humans and monsters.
Mavis turned human and leaned her back against a tree, "Hal, thank you for pulling me out of that predicament. You always have a excuse ready, huh?"
"Look up." The voice through the headset merely said.
In fact the large courtyard was now in dead silence, and when Mavis looked around she noticed that all eyes were on her. She did not expect to attract all the attention.
"H-Hello and welcome ..." She said, embarrassed, but those people replied only with a few quiet grunts and slow greeting with hands (or tentacles). They seemed ready to ask something important, but it was like something dawned on them, "Of course, the no interview obligation, I understand. I'll see you in a couple of hours." She concluded, before turning into a bat again and fly away in search of Johnathan.
She entered the castle, flying over the heads of the guests and along the corridors to the lobby, Johnny would probably be in the dining room, transformed for the occasion into a conference room, so the little bat lost altitude, passing between the columns, and entered the great room. She continued to glide through a narrow wooden corridor and when she came out immediately noticed the great transformation that she had only seen in part during work.
The great room seemed much smaller now that it had been turned into a kind of Greek amphitheater, with tiered seating that rise on one side of the central main stage that could be clearly seen by all the monsters.
The vampiress turned human and once again she drew the attention the monsters who had already occupied all the seats. They, unlike those in the courtyard, were much more serious and their eyes were not friendly, seeming to judge the young lover, who ignored them and walked briskly to the backstage.
"Johnny?" the girl asked, seeing the young man sitting in a chair, doing who-knows-what with his cell phone, looking grim and worried.
The human looked up and, seeing that Maris finally reached him, smiled, forgetting for a moment his problems, then he stood and hugged Mavis who smiled back.
"Johnny, you all right?" She asked, leaving the boy.
He looked down, "Well, yes ... more or less. I do not think I'm well-liked, most of the monsters look at me wrong ... they despise me."
"Just ignore them, they do the same to me. But I can't blame them, many of them have had problems because of humans, and this has given rise to a racism against those of your kind." Mavis said, "They will only learn that they can't all do the 'same brush' thing. After all, Ruthven and Ertzebeth were evil, but not all vampires are bad."
The human looked at her, puzzled, "I hope this meeting will serve to open their minds ... Wait ... what's that necklace?"
Mavis took the bat pendant in her hand "Hal gave it to me. With this I can speak with him. He said I have to act as a lawyer for my father. We hope everything goes well ..."
"A magical necklace-phone? I like it. We humans have watch phones." He joked.
"To tell the truth it isn't magic, it's human technology ... And he just made it to be compatible with mobile phones." The vampire replied, turning to the right, forgetting that this was just a voice in her ear.
"He's listening to us? Tell him that if he doesn't pull us out of this mess he will pay! However if it is compatible with mobile phones it must be a kind of bluetooth headset."
"Bluetooth?" The girl said, tilting her head, and then looked at the menacing metal bat with its mouth wide open, "No, it has silver teeth."
"No, Mavy, I do not mean it like that… forget it. However a gadget like that of a true secret agent will not be easy to find."
"He says he bought it for a few tens of euros on a beach, or rather, on a bay… "
"Ebay, perhaps?" Jonathan pointed out.
"Yes, that's right! If there is a big market I want to go there!" Mavis exclaimed excited.
"It's a long story Mavy, I'll explain later ..." The boy replied, chuckling to himself for her lack of knowledge technology.
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything" Drac said while turning human, "We'll start in half-an-hour, are you ready?" Then his eyes focused on his daughter, "Where did you get that necklace?"
"Hal gave it to me; we will use it for the process." Mavis replied curtly.
Dracula half-smiled bitterly.
"If he can get something of his interest out of this you can trust him ... His problem is he never explains his plans, even to the people involved in them. However, before we come out, it would be good to know who we're dealing with," Drac said, while making a briefcase appear in his hands and then giving it to Jonathan, who took it, "These is the data of the nine members of the Order of the Dragon."
The human opened the briefcase and began browsing the various document. It looked like a collection of curriculum vitae of monsters, like those of humans, but there were more images depending on the most common transformations that they had. The boy paused on Dracula's file. He had three photos, human, bat, and wolf form, his personal data and a detailed description of his political and private events.
"It'll not be very useful to read my paper, it would be better if you get to those who you don't know."
Johnathan put the page he was reading at the bottom of the deck, discovering a new document, with one picture that showed a merman.
"You already know him, it's Neptune the merman," Drac resumed, "Leader of the creatures of the salty waters and dragoon warrior. It's a nice guy, but when he gets angry you better move away from metal objects; he has a bad habit of throwing lightning. We became friends during the trip to Hawaii more than two centuries ago, and I have dedicated him a really great fountain. He is a trustworthy person and he will do anything to help us. "Then Drac snapped his fingers, making the document disappear and discovering a new one. There was a photo of a slightly dark skin man, multicolor-rasta skull cap, unkempt brown beard and round sunglasses.
"This guy looks straight out of a hippie concert..." Jonny exclaimed when he saw the picture.
"I've met him; he is able to see the soul of the people. He realized immediately that there's a demon in me, but seemed almost happy to learn that even a terrible demon can be kept at bay by a soul in love. "
"He is a holy creature, his powers are given by his own pure soul and not by demonic energy as all the normal magical creatures. He was born human and he is human in all respects, and since the disappearance of Phoenix he is the only holy creature with a human-level intelligence, all the others are just animals. He rejects violence on anything that has a soul and lives in harmony with humans, firmly believing in the power of love. He is the only member of the Order of the Dragon who refused to have a holy weapon, and, obviously, he's not a warrior. He will oppose the charges against me and the request to ban your relationship." Having said that, as before, Drac took away the document from the hands of the boy, and now the picture was of a woman with skin as white as snow and light blue hair. Even the dress was the same color, "Snedronningen, the snow queen," The vampire continued, "Elected by the creatures of ice and mountains. In the past, she was a knight, armed with a rod of ice that can change shape, but she retired, and now fights only in cases of extreme necessity. She has a cold heart, since she had a really nasty emotional disenchantment. She doesn't have a bad mood, but not feeling neither love nor compassion makes her decisions right, even if they may seem cruel. That's the problem, I don't know what she'll decide, but I know that her judgment, being impartial, could influence the ideas of some undecided. Unfortunately at this time she's a bit nervous. It seems that the human world is crafting a film about her that could become very famous, and unfortunately she will be the villain and she hates to be represented in that way."
"But you just said that her judgment will be impartial!" Jonathan interrupted him.
"I said that her judgment is not influenced by compassion, not by anger. However, you can understand her mood by the coldness that her body emits, the colder it is the more she is in a bad mood." Dracula then passed to the next, "Sir Allister Sassafeas, the leprechaun. Spokesman of the woodland creatures, stingy and profiteer to the bone, more than any other leprechaun. He hates humans, have who often tried to seize his treasure, and he feels great pleasure in the economic failure of others, because in this way he's able to obtain things of value at bargain prices. He doesn't hide his dreams of having this castle all to himself, and he'll do anything to eliminate me and take my place. You can also kick him if you meet him, his offensive magical abilities are poor, as is his physical strength, and there is no way to change his mind. I would love to do that."
The two youths tittered at this outburst.
Hearing that over the stage the chatter was increasing, Drac checked his pocket watch, "Running short of time," He said, darkly, "Better up the tempo."
On hearing this, Jonathan flipped through the documents. The new monster was a skeleton with a skull painting as a sugar skull, and dressed in a black robe.
"Donna Sebastiana, queen of the ghosts, dragoon warrior, her weapon is a scythe. She hasn't much sympathy for humans both because they are too afraid of death, and because they believe she's the goddess of death. However she is only a spirit that guides the more insecure souls. She has always been contrary to relationships between monsters and humans because she says that humans only seek a way to escape death. It will be hard to convince her otherwise. On the other hand, she loves the party that I organize at the hotel so I doubt she'll want to close it. "
Jonathan flipped a new page, the photo was of a strange monster, short, with rough and green skin, big eyes, no hair and large hands. He was dressed only in a few dirty rags.
"Hans, king of the mole people. They are a strange people that live underground. He is not a warrior and they say that his holy weapon is a hammer, but no one has ever seen it. He is the spokesman of the underground creatures. Unfortunately he is part of people who live isolated from both human and monster's world. He speaks little and has a mysterious nature, to tell the truth no one has yet understood which political party the mole men officially follow. Unfortunately I have no idea what he will vote for.
At this point they should be left only the three dragons. Shin Ryu, sovereign of dragons and flying creatures, Nessie of the freshwater creatures and Gojira of the flaming creatures, all three great warriors, despite Nessie and Gojira not being winged dragons. By the way, don't say anything about their inability to fly; the non-winged dragons are considered a lower class."
The human and the young vampire looked at the last three documents, Ryu had an image in human form and the other in her real form of Japanese winged snake-dragon, while Nessie's other form was represented by the big blue-violet sea dragon and Gojira seemed a fairly elderly Japanese man with graying hair, and in the second picture the famous bipedal green dragon with double row of vertical kite-shaped plates from the head to the bottom of the long tail.
"Wow," Johnny said, "The real Lock Ness monster. I once hiked into the lake, but I haven't seen her."
"She had to leave her native home because of the curious; it's also for this reason that she doesn't like humans..." The vampire replied.
"And moreover, even Godzilla! We hope that at least he has no problems with humans." The boy continued.
Dracula looked up at him, "Do not you dare call him Godzilla. Gojira is still mourning the death of his American brother. He lived in a quiet archipelago of the Galapagos, when he was knocked out by a nuclear test. In the confusion he went mad and he swam to the mainland causing panic among the human population. Unfortunately, a contingent of Dragons, including Gojira himself, had to knock it down to keep him from killing someone. He hates humans even more, but on the other hand he loves children.
However, they are dragons, Nessie and Gojira are loyal to their queen and for this they'll follow her ideas, even if she had different thoughts from theirs. The problem is that the dragons, all the dragons, hate vampires. "The old vampire ended with a sigh.
"So we have three on our side, four ready to close the hotel and a couple neutral? It shouldn't be so bad!" The young man exclaimed.
Dracula frowned at him, "You think? Anyway, I don't care about the hotel or myself, the only important thing are you two."
"You mean that you consider Johnny as important as me?" Mavis asked, surprised.
"No, sweet fangs" the father resumed, "It's just that I wouldn't want to see you sad. If they decide to ban your relationship they'll erase Johnny's memory and send him back to his home, leaving you alone."
"I'll not allow them to lobotomize me. I don't want to leave her!" The human exclaimed, embracing his beloved vampiress, "is there something we can do? On this discussion we're six against two, and the only neutral one will probably line up against us... can't you turn me into a vampire?"
"Absolutely not, it's forbidden to give life to new monsters. Otherwise, I wouldn't have risked killing you to reverse your transformation." The vampire said, bluntly.
"We call for a Maximum Poll." Mavis suddenly interjected.
"Of course," Dracula said, "We'll earn a lot of time and will avoid many of our opponents that make up the council. But how did you know that Mavis?"
Mavis shrugged and pointed at her ear.
"Obviously... it was his idea. I forget that he listens to our conversations." The vampire continued, "With Maximum Poll the leaders of each race of monsters cast their vote. They are thousands and almost all of them are my affectionate clients. Since it's a matter that concerns not only you, but all the monsters they'll not deny this request. "That said he checked his pocket watch. There were less than five minutes to noon, and this explained the increase of chattering from the great room, "It's the time." The old count ended with impressive voice.
Trying to get a good public opinion was essential to be in the lead during the real process. In fact, the members of the Order of the Dragon were not blind to the view of monsters that they represented.
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