Thanks to my beta reader floodmaster16
CHAPTER 28: Love has no judges
Mavis was alone in her room. She felt dizzy, her hunger probably getting worse, but she tried to stay calm. She went out and walked slowly toward the lobby.
She noted with pleasure that the dizziness started ebbing away as she came down the stairs, but now that she felt better she could not figure out where her father had gone and why Jonathan had not come looking for her. It was probably Dracula himself who ordered him not to go to her, but she would have liked to have him close to her at that moment.
The hall was crowded with monsters of all sizes and races, so the zombies had to bend over backwards, in the true sense of the word, to satisfy the needs of so many people.
"Mavis, where did you go?" Drac exclaimed softly.
"I'm... sorry, I... I wasn't feeling very well." She mumbled in response, her voice barely audible to the vampire despite his fine hearing.
He smiled at her, "Don't worry, it's almost over."
Together they returned to the great hall and crossed the central corridor under the half-moon wooden tribunes; in spite of the large size, the seats were already full of monsters ready to follow the debate, while just as many had had to remain outside the hall.
They reached their position, where Jonathan had remained with Jay Ci, the human with extraordinary powers despite having no demonic energy in him, like other magical creatures. The two were happily arguing while they drank green tea and biscuits.
Unlike with Mavis, no curious onlookers approached the boy. Having a Councilor nearby was probably a good deterrent.
"Whoo, Mavy!" Jonathan exclaimed in a drawled voice as soon as he saw the girl, "Take a chair and join us, you too Drac!"
The vampiress was happy to see her boyfriend so quiet, but her father seemed in a completely different mood.
"Jay, what the hell are you doing?" The Count grumbled.
"No, Drac," Jonny replied, "Recall this negativity in you, exorcise it and turn it into positivity." He continued gesticulating with his soft arms.
"Negativity?" Dracula exclaimed, "The problem is not negativity! We're on trial and your best idea is a marijuana tea party?"
The two stoned humans looked at the old Count, then exchanged glances among themselves, "Of course yes!" They exclaimed in unison.
The sullen Count snapped his fingers and, in a moment, all that was on the desk vanished, including the cup that Jonathan had in his hand and the teapot with which Jay Ci had filled the boy's cup with infusion.
The two remained petrified by disappointment until the rasta councilor got up from his chair and walked away without saying anything, head down and sad face, like a child who returns home after having angered his friend's mother.
Mavis found the scene amusing, but her father did not.
"Great, on one side we have a drugged-up Johnathan, and on the other is Mavis, who could eat him up at any moment." The old sarcastic vampire muttered.
These words wiped the smile off of Mavis's face in a moment. Her father was terribly right, maybe Jonathan did not seem so different from the usual, but she was sick, and even though at that moment she had no strange thoughts about her lover, she also had no way of knowing how long this tranquility would last.
"The Council is ready to resume." Grandma Gremlin's monotone voice announced. Although she did not have a strong voice, and not even an authoritarian figure, the entire hotel fell silent. Immediately afterwards, the members of the Order came back to resume their seats.
"If we are all ready, we can start." Shin Ryu, Queen of Dragons, said. Although at that moment she looked like a tiny Chinese girl with long black hair, she was actually the oldest and most powerful living dragon in the world, "Very well, the Order of the Dragon convenes to discuss the legitimacy of the relationship between the present Mavis Dracula and Jonathan..."Shin Ryu stopped for a moment, "In fact we don't know the name of your family, yet." She continued, turning to the boy.
It was true.
It had been more than a month since the human had arrived at Hotel Transylvania and no one knew his surname yet. It was not a strange thing, the monsters are few in the world, they do not need a surname. Moreover, their life is often so long that they do not feel the need to transmit their name to future generations. The only ones who have this human custom are above all those who have human origins. Days ago this topic had come up at the table with Mavis and her father, but Johnny had avoided answering.
"Can you repeat, please?" Snow Queen asked.
Jonathan mumbled again, but not even Mavis, sitting next to him, could hear him.
The dragoness kept staring at the boy waiting for an answer, but he continued to take time, then stammered something incomprehensible.
Shin Ryu looked at him impatiently, her eyes clearer than a thousand words.
"Fockers." The human said in a whisper, resigned, triggering the laughter of everyone present, including Dracula and Mavis, but they tried not to burst out laughing.
"All right, all right, my name is that, now can you stop it and change the subject?" He said irritably.
With a decisive blow of her wooden hammer, the Queen of Dragons called to silence.
"As we were saying..." She said with a slight amused smile, "We are gathered here to discuss the legitimacy of the relationship between Mavis Dracula and Johnathan..." She took a couple of seconds before continuing, "The Human."
"Thanks..." The human whispered sarcastically.
"First of all, we have to evaluate the direct and indirect danger of this human being." Sassafras the leprechaun said, with his sullen and shrill speech. Although he was a little guy in green suit, he was always among the first to attack.
"What are they talking about?" The boy asked Drac in a low voice.
"Direct danger: the possibility that you can harm monsters. Indirect danger: the possibility that you betray our secrecy and our security." The old Count briefly explained.
"In regards to direct danger I would say about zero. Who is in agreement?" Said Gojira, the Japanese old man who hid his true identity of a giant un-winged dragon.
All the members of the Council raised their hands.
"Hey, I was yellow belt at karate by the time I was 6!" The boy snorted, but Dracula stomped his foot to shut him up.
"Idiot, any classification above zero and you go home without memories!" He whispered between his teeth, trying not to be heard by the Councilors.
"Do you wish for a re-evaluation?" Shin Ryu asked hopefully.
"No, your honor." Johnny replied promptly.
"As for indirect danger and his real intentions, we'll have to discuss it." The Queen of Dragons continued. "But before listening to those directly interested I would like to make a prologue... I call the sorceress Circe forward, I know she's present in the audience."
A woman with long black hair and olive skin sitting in the central area of the seats looked around startled as all the monsters turned to her.
"Please, join us." The judge urged her.
The woman vanished, then reappeared, sitting on the witness stand.
"I'd like to remind everyone that this is not an official testimony, I just want everyone to listen to her story. Please tell us about your experience with humans."
Circe was hesitant. Even though there was officially competition between Hotel Transylvania and the Dream Hotel, the two owners were still good friends, even if they had not seen each other for years due to commitments of their businesses, "It's been a long time. 3,000 years ago relationships between humans and monsters were more complicated, and then turning his friends into animals made the situation worse..."
"I'm not referring to that case," the judge interrupted her, "I'm talking about that other time, about twenty years ago, I don't think it's been that long."
The sorceress gulped, "I was dating a human. We both liked each other, so one night I brought him to my hotel, well... at the time it was still a small motel, but… it was not a good idea." The woman sobbed, she probably still felt something for that man, "I used magic to recreate something that made him feel at ease. In his case, it was his old toys, but when he came to my front door and noticed his stuff in the next room he freaked out. He awoke up the guests, who came out of their rooms, and he got even more frightened and ran away. We tried to chase him to explain the misunderstanding, but he jumped out of the window, got into the car and ran away. "
The sobs and tears prevented the woman from going on.
"I remember the incident," said Queen of the Snows, "We sent a team of Erasers to erase his memory, but the strong emotions he had felt that night could not be eliminated. He was convinced that what he had experienced was just a nightmare."
"Yeah, I was just a great nightmare for him..." Circe sighed, the wound hidden deep inside her heart was more painful than anyone could imagine. Then the woman stood up again in tears, "Can I go?" She asked in a trembling voice.
The Queen of the Dragons nodded her head, and the woman closed her eyes before she dematerialized.
"Objection!" Mavis exclaimed, "This testimony is not relevant to the case in question."
"Rejected." Shin Ryu countered, "We are not judging any cases yet. As I said, this is just a little talk that none of the judges should consider. "
Lies.
The members of the Order of the Dragon are emotional, and reminding them of bad experiences of interracial couples would only tip the balance against the young couple.
"Let's move on," the woman said, looking towards Neptune, the mighty King of the Seas. Unlike how Jonathan imagined the mermen, Neptune had the appearance of a large human. He did not have a fish tail, even if there were some scales on his legs. "Neptune, what can you tell us about monster-human relations? Your younger daughter fell in love with one of them long ago."
The newt's frowned so deeply that his eyes almost disappeared in the shadows "My daughter saved him from drowning and wanted to see him again. She was so determined to come to an arrangement with a witch of the abyss and cut her tongue in exchange for two legs with which to reach him, but the human fell in love with the woman he saw when he woke up on the beach and my daughter, without a voice, couldn't tell him the truth."
"Come on don't despair!" Jonathan exclaimed winking, "There are plenty of fish in the sea!"
There was a moment of awkward silence.
"Not getting that man's love in time," Neptuno continued, his voice was more and more broken, "The curse killed my daughter. The only thing that remained of her was a handful of sea foam, that has dissolved in the waves. "
"Stupid cartoons and their happy endings that never happened..." The human whispered to himself.
"Well, I think it will be enough." The master judge said, "Let's start the last trial by calling the interested party to testify, Jonathan the human."
The boy stood up and reached the chair under the dragon queen who, along with the other council members, towered over him from the top of their bench.
In front of him he could see a swarm of monsters sitting on the semi-circular seating area, while Dracula and Mavis were behind their desk, lonely, in the middle of the space between the public and the councilors.
"Isn't it weird to turn my back to the judges?" Johnny asked, sitting down and looking up at Shin Ryu.
"Not at all. You have to talk to the public, because they are the ones who judge you, we are just intermediaries." The woman answered.
Fine words, but in reality the councilors, although elected by the monsters, were nothing more than the most powerful exponents of every monstrous habitat, and their political offices were for life, therefore practically eternal.
"You solemnly swear to... oh, why do I make you swear? You can lie regardless of your oath." The dragoness said acidly, "Are you Jonathan Focker, of the human race?"
"Yes, and I swear I won't lie." The boy answered. "It's not my fault that I don't have some dark magic in me that forces me to respect an oath." He answered with more of an attitude than the dragoness herself.
The three dragons looked at him scornfully, but could not argue; after all, Jonathan was right.
"Why did you come to this hotel?" Shin Ryu asked.
"Weren't you listening when I told my story in yesterday's interview?" The human answered without thinking.
The dragoness was beginning to lose her patience, but preferred to remain calm, "Not everyone present at the moment attended that meeting." She countered.
"I won a trip to Europe thanks to a competition, the second stage was right here in Transylvania. Intrigued by the stories about monsters, I went into the haunted forest, and on a clearing I saw some burning guys, so I followed them up to get here."
"And no ghost or other monster stopped you?"
"Indeed not."
"Objection," Mavis interrupted them "These questions are not related to the subject under discussion."
"Fine, I'll be more direct. Do you have any knowledge or weapons that can keep the monsters that protect the forest away?"
"No, I didn't know of the existence of monsters before arriving in this castle."
"So you have no connection to any monster hunter? Is Van Helsing's arrival shortly after you just a coincidence?"
"The first and only time I met one, he almost killed me. I would say no."
"So you want us to believe you didn't receive any help to overcome the haunted forest?"
It was probably the lamias, acting in the shadows, that prevented the ghosts from approaching him, but since that was just one of Dracula's suppositions, he didn't feel obligated to reveal it.
"I arrived here alone."
The dragon queen snorted sarcastically. She didn't believe the boy's words, but she couldn't prove otherwise.
"If you had known of the existence of monsters before, would you have tried to reach this place?"
"Sure, I got a lot of new friends here."
"And are you afraid of death?"
"Of course. O-obviously, yes, what kind of question is that?"
"You admit that you fear death, and that you would have tried to get in touch with monsters right away if you had discovered their existence before your trip. I've followed thousands of cases like this, you humans are all the same, you all want to get monsters' eternal life."
"Hey, that's not what I said! I love Mavis and I love you all as you were my family, I don't care if I get old and die, I'll be happy to be with you while I live." Jonathan blurted out, irritated by these accusations.
"Pretty words, but they are only words..." Queen of Dragons replied, "Donna Sebastiana," She continued, turning to the skeleton woman dressed in a black hooded tunic and a skull covered with typical designs of Mexican sugar skulls, "You have to deal with humans at the end of their life all the time, how many of them wish for a vampire's long life? "
The skeleton woman took a few seconds before answering, "Almost no human accepts death. It's tiring. For millennia, I have helped their soul leave the land of the living, and everyone is afraid of me, as if I were the cause of their end. I can't say with certainty that this human remained here only to obtain eternal life, I only say that, knowing his fellow men, this is the most probable thing."
"The most probable thing?" Allister Sassafeas the leprechaun squeaked, "Let's face it, he's here to get eternal life or he's here to get us all exterminated by hunters!"
No one in the courtroom countered those words, a really bad start. 5 councilors were already against them.
"You take everything for granted, certain that you can't go wrong. How can you judge me if you don't even know me? I mean, are we here to judge me or judge the typical behavior of my fellow men?" Jonathan had never been so sure of himself, especially when he was under pressure or in the presence of important monsters.
"Jonathan." Mavis said in a dull voice, she had never said that name so coldly, she seemed like a real lawyer, "Have you had direct contact with other humans since you discovered the existence of monsters?"
"Yes." He replied, "When I was about to go home and when I called my family a couple of times."
"And did you tell anyone about our existence?"
"Absolutely not."
"Well, can you also confirm that it was you who helped Dracula to improve the castle's anti-intrusion systems, both by drawing the secret passages and explaining typical human behavior so as to easily predict their every move?
"Exactly, objectively speaking I would say that without me I don't know if Drac could have managed the humans you dragons brought here." The boy declared giving a look to the Count who smiled slightly and nodded to confirm the boy's words.
"Johnathan," Dracula said, who had not opened his mouth until then, "What would you be willing to do to protect my daughter?"
"Everything, even give my own life." The boy answered without needing to think about it.
"And what have you done so far to protect her?" The old vampire's questions were well aimed, only to hope that the boy answered honestly, omitting only a few details.
"I stood in the middle between her and Van Helsing, I came face to face with a bat demon and fought alone against Erzebeth."
Shin Ryu barely holds a laugh, "Lies, at least try to come up with credible stories!"
"If you are so sure of what you say, prove it." Neptune the Triton said, his appearance of a third-aged human with long, white hair and beard was in stark contrast to the tall, sculpted physique. Given his great physical and magical abilities, he was a high-ranking dragoon as well as the owner of Atlantis hotel, a resort at the bottom of the ocean.
"P-prove it? And how could I?" The confused boy exclaimed.
Shin Ryu stood up, closed her eyes and her body burned with a green and yellow fire that burned upwards, then curved and fell on the floor and formed a circle with Mavis and Jonathan inside. The long fire-serpent became solid, the flames were now the green scales of a gigantic twisted snake entering with difficulty into that room. The front legs were short but endowed with long claws and the head, surrounded by a thick dark green mane, was like a lion with deer horns.
She was the typical Chinese serpent dragon, the only difference was the two white feathered wings about halfway down the body. The wings were large, but compared to the dragon's body they were definitely undersized.
Shin Ryu showed her true form for the first time in front of the human who was stunned.
The dragoness sinuously crawled on the ground until she reached Mavis, who was immediately wrapped up in her coils and lifted from the ground.
"Tell me human, how much do you care about your girlfriend's safety?" Shin Ryu asked in a deep voice.
Oh yes, Jonathan will have a good time to demonstrate his love. Follow me to find out how the fight between Jonathan the human and Shin Ryu the dragoness will go.
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