295 Ironic Talk Show

When Blue arrived in the meeting room, Becca quickly started prepping her for the interview. It was weird to be far away from someone they saw every day for almost a year, and as much as Hera and Blue wanted just to hang out, they had to get ready for the camera. Becca explained to Blue how Hera wanted to spin the story and gave her some pointers on how to answer a few questions.

"Do you always tell the people you are interviewing what to say?" Blue asked.

"Not at all. I only do that when I have to direct the story in a particular way. Hera asked me to help her protect the people of Boothudurn, so I'm doing my best to help her," Becca was putting some basic makeup on Blue.

"I mean, I get why Hera is worried, but doesn't that mean we can't trust in the articles and interviews you make?" Blue asked.

"That's up to you, but I never lied about anything I did. I might have put some emphasis on a piece of specific information, but that was it. All my articles have all the information I gathered about the subject."

"That's sketchy," Blue replied.

"It may be, but it has its uses," Becca shrugged.

"Besides, this will help the people of Boothudurn. Even if it is somewhat of a grey area, as long as we are using it for a good reason, it's ok," Hera added.

"So it's fine if we do sketchy things outside a dungeon, but killing a humanoid monster inside one is a no-go?" Blue scoffed.

"Those things are completely different," Hera rolled her eyes.

Blue turned to Becca, "A question. Did you 'spin' the first interview you did with Hera?"

"I did, but not the contents. Only what it was supposed to make people feel," Becca replied without missing a beat.

"Which was?" Blue pressed.

"Make them feel safe and give them hope. Everyone was on edge because of what happened in the wall, and talking about the possibility of Wendigos everywhere could cause some panic. We edited your interview to make it clear that even a weak and inexperienced explorer could defeat them," Becca turned to Hera, "Sorry about that."

"Well.. you were not wrong," Hera shrugged.

Becca continued to give Blue and Hera some hints, and when they felt ready, the interview started. Unlike what happened when Hera did it on her own, this time, it fell much less daunting. It didn't have that official feeling. Ironically, this almost felt like being on a morning show. Becca asked some questions that they were ready for and others that caught them off guard. Even so, things went down without a hitch.

"I think that this is all I need. Thanks, guys, you two have been through a lot," Becca turned off the camera.

"You can say that again," Blue sighed.

"Are you enjoying being back?" Hera asked.

"Yeah. Well… there were some weird moments. Like... my parents had a shrine for me? I don't know what to call it, but it was like a place where they kept a picture of me and some things to remember me by. It was weird seeing that."

"Oh, tell me about it. I had to pay for my own funeral," Hera sighed.

"Your mom?"

"Yep. There was something else with Stella, but I'll tell you later," Hera turned to Becca, "This is all off the record, right?"

"The interview is over, don't worry. Now we are just friends talking, and I'm not one to gossip," Becca was double-checking the recording. She looked up and saw the odd expression the girls were wearing, "Just because I'm a reporter doesn't mean I have a big mouth. I have secrets too, you know. Sources and stuff that I can't tell anyone," she crossed her arms in a huff.

Hera and Blue laughed. A few minutes later, they came out of the meeting room and headed to the doorway. Hera still had to see when she could go back to Brinefront, and since it could take some time, Blue was going to keep her company for a while so they could talk. To her luck, Hera would only need to wait for about 3 hours before going back inside the MAZE. This would give her enough time to catch up with her friend. They went out to a fast food place and talked about what happened ever since they came back. Blue was surprised by the whole deal with the ambassadors and how the Sky Ruler nest had changed. Even so, she didn't want to leave her family for now. She didn't have any big news. Her days were spent just lazing around, almost like it was a summer vacation.

A couple of hours went by before Blue headed back home, and Hera went back to the guild to get ready to enter the MAZE. She finally got into her armor again, and it felt much better. Even if it wasn't as comfortable as casual clothes. The journey back to Boothudurn took two days since Hera couldn't cross more than 3 doorways each day.

When she arrived, the entire city already had an internet connection, and large groups of dwarves were already taking the classes to enter the age of information. Silah was among the ones who were a part of the first class. Although she had a considerable edge in comparison. She had been talking with Hera through her tablet for a while already, not to mention she had access to three humans who were used to technology. The guild branch had completed its construction, but some of the equipment was still missing. Apparently, the New Dawn was sending top-of-the-line facilities, but the materials and structure needed would still take some time to reach Boothudurn.

The last piece of news that the city had was the discovery of a new doorway outside the mountain. Now that some humans were around and had some fancy modern toys, it was easy to get a complete view of the room. By using drones, they made a video with a bird's-eye view of the entire mountain. Near the bottom of the room, a cliff led to a small alcove where the doorway was hidden. The passage to this new room was also locked, but now that Rutigan had the key to the room, all they had to do was send a quick expedition with the King and open the doorway, which led to a place called 'White Desert' on the 4th layer. The guild had sent a scouting party, but that group was still exploring this new room when Hera came back.

Bonnie, Alex, and Helena spent the last few days in the Wooly Plains along with the guard and Silah. Alex wasn't used to standing still anymore, and all of them wanted to stretch their teamworking muscles. Hera joined in the dungeon on the same day she returned. It was fun to fight with her friends, and those last few days on Earth made her feel rusty. When they returned home, Hera had forgotten that her interview was already up on the guild website. To her chagrin, Silah was excited to see her girlfriend in a video like that. As soon as she had a chance, the blacksmith opened her tablet and searched for the interview. Lena wanted to see it too, and Hera set up the hologram mode of her new tablet so everyone could watch her embarrassing moments. Bonnie made some popcorn, and they all quickly sat around the couch to see the interview.

"What are those numbers under the video?" Silah asked before Hera hit play.

"Those are the number of views, then how many people liked the video and the number of comments," Alex replied, "How long ago was this published?"

"... It came out today…." Hera replied after seeing the number of views. In just the however many hours since the interview came out, there were already close to 100 thousand views.

"Someone's popular," Lena teased.

"It must be Blue. She's cute and all excited about everything," Hera said.

As the video went on, they understood why it had so many views. It was a blast to watch. Blue and Hera's expressions varied wildly, and they even teased each other at times. Hearing them talk about how they vanished in a dungeon and discovered Boothudurn was like listening to an adventure book, and Becca's questions only made things more interesting. Her editing skills were scarily good. The answers they gave were nothing special by themselves. However, by using different angles and, at times, focusing the camera on Hera when Blue was talking, or vice versa, she managed to make everything more intense.

The group was enthralled with the descriptions. They laughed when Hera started ranting about how 'one specific dwarf can't remember her two-syllable name'. Hera was cautious not to mention the name or the position of the dwarf in question, but anyone who knew her could tell that it was about Naka. At the end of the interview, Becca asked about the dwarves and what they expected with this new room. Hera and Blue talked about how much they helped, worked, and struggled with them to find a way for the humans to go back home. Becca edited that last part to show the care, love, and respect that the people of Boothudurn had for those they had never seen before. It was such a breath of fresh air that everyone could only think about paying them back. There was even an emotional moment when Hera told Becca how that was the first place where she felt actually seen.

When it finally ended, Hera didn't know what to say. They spent one hour recording the interview, but the video itself only lasted for 15 minutes.

"That was… amazing. How come you never told us that story?" Bonnie asked.

"I did. That's the same story I told you guys before," Hera gasped.

"You didn't tell it like that," Alex pointed at the video.

"I never told it like that, not even during the interview."

"So… they faked your voice?" Lena asked.

"No, I said all those things. It's just… It wasn't all that. I don't know how to explain it, but that was all Becca. Really our stories were not that interesting," Hera explained.

"Did you mean what you said about us?" Silah turned to Hera, "Do you really feel like no one ever treated you that well?"

"As a group, yeah. Like, individually, there is my grandma, my dad sometimes, the girls here. But as a group, yeah, no one was ever that kind to me before," as soon as Hera finished speaking, Silah jumped to give her a big hug.

"I'm so sorry," Silah whispered.

"Hey. It's ok. Everything is fine," Hera replied while hugging her girlfriend back.

"Can we join in that?" Alex asked after a moment.

Silah didn't say anything, just gestured for her to come. Everyone joined in the hug. Hera didn't feel that great about the situation, but it wasn't terrible. They stayed there for a moment, and Bonnie was the first one to break off. She picked Hera's tablet and took a look at the comments out of curiosity. There was the usual bad, people just saying awful things for no reason, others complaining about only having women on the screen. However, that was the vast minority. Most comments were talking about how incredible the people of Boothudurn were. Others, how Hera and Blue were amazing for going through all that, and some talked about the ramifications of having a monster that was several levels higher than the rest of the room.

"You know. If you weren't famous before, you are now," Bonnie said.

"Oh great," Hera rolled her eyes.

They all read some of the comments and seeing people say how pretty Hera was only made her feel more uncomfortable. After a while, Lena received a message and smiled.

"Oh, Ninleyn, just let me know that he will get here tomorrow. Then he can talk to you and Bonnie about the order."

"Great, after that, I need something to take my mind out off things," Hera sighed.