DD 302 Ch 4

“All right, so if you’re here to help, then go ahead and help,” I said as we entered the hotel room.

Bellaire did a quick circle around the room, checking the place out. “Suitable,” she finally said with a nod, though I could see that she was unimpressed. I on the other hand was fairly certain it was the nicest hotel room I had ever been inside.

“Well, I’m glad it’s to your liking.” I nodded at her and looked at Des for help.

“It really isn’t too bad,” Des said before plopping down on the bed.

“Again, what exactly are we doing?” I said, looking between the two of them.

“Right.” Des waved toward Bellaire. “So we’re gonna go on Kernel Live tonight.”

I waited as they looked at me expectantly. Clearly I was supposed to know about this show.

“You know, the old redheaded guy, very Irish, makes a lot of inappropriate jokes?” Des egged me on.

I shook my head again.

“Do you see what we’re dealing with?” Des said in exasperation to Bellaire, who was walking out of the bathroom.

She had a strange gait to her and seemed to be running her hands softly over everything. It was odd to see someone move like that in person, though it fit more with a drama or someone on TV. Strangely enough, I couldn’t stop watching her.

When Bellaire saw, she smirked. “One of the first things you have to learn, Ken, is how to get everyone’s attention and exaggerate what you do. Understand that even if you’re trying to put emotion into what you’re saying or your gestures, the audience is only going to get fraction of what you put out.”

I frowned but nodded along. She knew what she was talking about far more than I did, so I would listen and attempt my best to follow her instructions. “All right, that seems easy enough,” I said, ready to move on to the next lesson.

But Bellaire only smiled in response. “You’re going to have to try a lot harder than that.” She raised an eyebrow and waited

I said it again, this time with emphasis and an overexaggerated gesture. I paused, considering the change. “Seems easy enough.”

“Better. But you’re going to have to practice. Also, you need to stay calm through the entire interview, no matter what.” Bellaire stared into my eyes. This time she got up in my personal space, close enough that I could smell her breath rolling off her soft lips.

“Why is that?” I asked, refusing to flinch back.

“Because more than a few of these people are going to try and get you to react. After all, a strong reaction will make for better clips.” She put a finger against my chest as if to make a point. “Their goal is not to communicate whatever it is you want to communicate. Their goal is to get better ratings. You need to understand what they’re after if you’re to have any hope of playing the game. Make sense?”

“You have to know the rules to play any game, at least to play it effectively.” I shrugged, not really feeling any more in my element than earlier, but I did appreciate a better understanding of their focus.

Bellaire beamed back at me. “I hope you still feel so confident about it after your first one. Thankfully, Kernel is an easy one. He’ll lob a handful of soft pitches at you. If you have half an idea of what’s coming, then it shouldn’t be too hard.”

Bellaire flicked at her CID. “I’ve looked at his station and what articles they’ve been running to see what sort of questions they’re going to push out of him.”

“I don’t get the questions in advance?” I asked.

Des actually laughed at that question and stepped in to answer. “Not unless you’re a big shot.” The demonic mage looked up from the bed and over to me, a small smile playing on her lips. “Crimson can probably force that out, but again, that’s one of the reasons she doesn’t get as many interviews as she used to.”

“I mean, Crimson’s still insanely popular, right?” I asked.

The two ladies in the room looked between each other.

“As popular as possible without the full support of the media empire, really,” Bellaire said. “The Harem Queen’s more popular. She gets considerably better attention if you ask me.” Bellaire shrugged. “It’s all a game. Always has been. You just need the rules to play it. Their goal is to get the most shocking thing out of you so they can run it as a headline. Your goal is to keep everything tight and within whatever story you’re trying to tell, with enough suitable goodies they can form a decent headline and entertain their masses.”

“By story, you mean the truth?” I asked.

Bellaire waved a hand. “Truth, lie, doesn’t matter. What is your story?”

I paused. “The truth.”

Des rubbed at her temples. “I think what he means to say is that the dungeon is as dangerous as it ever was, no more, no less. It’s just that perhaps those adventurers who used to be at the very top are no longer as safe as they used to be. Which means as Haylon students are about as much in danger as ever, that is to say, not much. But that’s where we have to fib a little.” Des pinched her fingers together. “As far as talking points, Ken, they’re going to try and make you out whatever fight you’ve had to be harrowing and dangerous, and you as a hero. While the counterpoint will be that the White Tiger Guild was nearly wiped out, and that it was only luck that you managed to save them.”

I nodded along. “But our argument is that it wasn’t luck? That it was some consistent skill? And I’m gonna be able to jump to everyone’s rescue?” I asked.

“No, not at all. You just need to downplay the luck. It was your skill that saved them and that skill was taught to you by Haylon.” Des told me.

Bellaire crouched between my legs, a hand on each thigh. As she spoke to me, her hands began to knead my legs as she continued. “Now, let’s give you a test run, why don’t we?” She slid her hand further up my thigh. “I hear you saved the White Tigers.” She looked up at me through her lashes, causing a very particular part of my anatomy to grow stiff with attention.

“Yeah…” I stumbled.

Bellaire just smirked, running slow, soft circles with her fingers over my thigh. “That must have been terrifying. I heard the White Tiger Guild is pulling out of the dungeon.”

“Wait? They’re pulling out?” I said, surprised at the news.

I got a smirk from Bellaire, as if telling me that I needed to fix that reaction. I cleared my throat. “That’s a surprise to me and more shocking than anything else. Sure, they had a rough go of it, but which adventurer hasn’t been in that much danger before?” I said, struggling to keep my voice steady as Bellaire continued to run her hands along my legs. The tent in my pants strained and stretched as if wanting to meet her halfway.

“Good,” Bellaire purred. “Though you’re going to get the White Tiger Guild a little upset at you if you make them sound like cowards.”

I cleared my throat. “It’s not that they did anything wrong. Perhaps they’re just of a different generation in the dungeon. After all, me and the rest of the Haylon students have gone far and above where you’d expect of third-year college students.”

Bellaire noted, “Speaking of how young you are. Who is to say that you’re even capable of making the right decisions when it comes to risk? After all, can you even drink?”

I winced having set this line of questioning off. “Of course I could drink. It wasn’t like anyone enforcing laws in the dungeon was concerned about drinking age.”

Bellaire gave me a subtle shake of her head. “That makes you come off as lawless, or outside the rules. Dodge the question, but put the onus on someone else if you get stuck.”

“You’re welcome to come down into the dungeon and start checking IDs before you sell beer.” I chuckled and hoped if I did that I’d get the crowd to join me.

“Better,” Bellaire purred, running a hand up my thigh. This one went a little further than I expected and brushed against my sensitive head, making me jump.

Des giggled, and I shot her a glare, which was quickly interrupted as a finger snapped right in front of my face. I turned my attention back to Bellaire.

Bellaire shook her head. “Focus. Don’t get distracted. And certainly don’t glare at Des in the interview, no matter what she says.”

I turned to Des. “Do not take that as a challenge.”

Des simply shrugged, smirking as she pretended she was doing something very important in her CID.

“Des.” I growled.

The demonic mage sighed and looked more serious. “Don’t worry, Ken. I’m here to help you as much as I can. As fun as it would be to get a reaction out of you, my goals are the same as yours. We’re here to make the dungeon look less scary, and generally get the populace to regard diving the dungeon as a personal risk and not one for all of humanity.”

I squinted at that slight tilt to the goal. “Because if it’s personal risk, then no one cares what we do,” I extrapolated.

“Perfect.” Bellaire got my attention again. Every time Des began to distract me, Bellaire only had to begin her ministrations with her hands to regain my attention.

“With the White Tiger stepping down as one of the world’s foremost guilds, do you think the Silverfangs will step up and take their spot?” Bellaire asked.

I squinted at her. That hadn’t even been a consideration on my mind. But now that she said it, I could understand where the thought came from.

“No. It’s not a particular interest of the Silver Fangs to do much of anything outside the dungeon. We’re really focusing on our relationship in Star City and the Orcai. After all, that deep in the dungeon is practically another world.” I offered.

Those words got a rapid series of nods from Bellaire. “Good, good. Distance it from the people.”

“I don’t know what you mean?” Even though she was giving me tips, I stayed in character, as it were.

“And what about you, Des?” She shifted her attention away from me. “Are the Renards not remiss with their loss of your generation over to the Silverfangs?”

She gestured at me, and I wanted to jump on that and argue, but realized when I was supposed to hold my tongue.

Des was still laying on the bed when she answered. “It’s not a big deal. I’ve got two brothers. I’m sure my parents would be more than happy to focus on them. Besides, Ken is diving deep into the dungeon, not to mention Crimson is there, and which one of us doesn’t want to get personal training from Mistress Crimson herself?”

She sat up slightly. “I mean, the woman is a legend. As an adventurer, let me tell you, in action, she stands up to all of the myths and then some.”

“Oh, Crimson is that powerful?” Bellaire leaned forward. “We haven’t seen much of her lately.”

Des waved a hand. “Understandably. She’s crazy busy. Not only is she always training to her limits in the depths of the dungeon, but now she’s got several of the other deep dungeon races to worry about.”

“Worry.” Bellaire latched onto that word, and I could see Des nearly curse under her breath, but she stopped herself.

“Worry for Crimson, not for the rest of us,” Des saved herself with the clarification. “After all, personal reputation with a bunch of cat people or Orcai in the depths of the dungeon isn’t something the average person needs to handle.”

“Is there a lot of trade with these other races?” Bellaire sounded like she’d found something she wanted to dig into. “There were some reports going around that they had economies that could entirely strip ours if the two were to collide. After all, it’s essentially a completely unexpected economy. The banks and the stock markets have no idea what’ll happen to our economy if all of that flows in.”

I grabbed this one. “Why would it flow in? To be honest, we don’t have much that they want. You have to understand, the Orcai are incredibly self-sufficient. They’ve lived in the depths of the dungeon for possibly centuries. Us going in and connecting our economies would be the equivalent of some undeveloped nation claiming that their economy was going to wreck one of the economic giants of the world. On a matter of scale, we simply aren’t that important to them. On the other hand, it’s a decent opportunity for us. Though I understand many people are scared of change.”

“Scared or not, change makes waves. And waves capsize boats,” Bellaire said as the tips of her fingernails dragged along the tent in my pants and made it hard for me to think straight. “Maybe you have a bit of a bias, Ken. I hear that you’ve been partying with elves and even Nekorians, the very same that tried to kill the White Tigers Guild.”

My eyebrows snapped down, and I grew angry for the briefest of moments before I realized that she was intentionally provoking me. “No. Not the same Nekorians. In fact, they’re quite different. Felin comes from a branch that was separated from the Nekorian homeworld ages ago. Meanwhile, the ones that caused the issues were from the homeworld itself. The two groups haven’t even known each other existed for several generations. We can’t judge all Nekorians by the actions of a few, just the way we can’t do the same for any other group here on Earth.”

Bellaire smirked, dragging her fingernail across my sensitive head in challenge, daring me to keep my wits about me while she continued to barrage me with question after question.

But I forged forward, partnering with Des to tag team the questions. If I hesitated for more than a few seconds, Des would step in with a well-timed answer, I would do the same for her in turn.

It was exhausting trying to think of every angle that this could be misinterpreted, and trying to be careful with my language, all while Bellaire continued to be a massive tease, almost painfully so.

By the end, I was very sexually frustrated. “Not too bad, not too bad,” Des complimented me as Bellaire finally stood up. Apparently we were done. I certainly was, flopping back on the bed, exhausted from all the questions and the tension that had been straining in my body the whole time.

“What do you think?” Des asked Bellaire.

I couldn’t find the energy in myself to lift my head, but I was listening.

“Not bad. That you’ll all be there in a group helps. If you and he support each other, I think it’ll turn out fine enough. Just try not to have him and Helen butting heads.” Bellaire stated.

“If she wants the question, I’ll give it to her,” I grumbled from the bed.

“I’m afraid it’s not always that easy,” Bellaire tutted. “It’s a perception thing. If you two fight over questions, no matter how momentary or brief, it changes the tone of the whole interview.”

I nodded. “I’ll be careful.”

“And don’t give up all of the questions. Otherwise you’ll come off as a pushover, and that’ll make the next round harder.” She told me.

Des groaned. “Are you sure we can’t take you with us, Bellaire? I’m sure you could run circles around some of these interviewers.”

“I think it’s very purposeful that they didn’t let anyone too experienced join in on all of this.” Bellaire answered.

“I have some experience,” Des countered, only to get a long stare from Bellaire. “I had some training,” Des clarified.

I rolled over enough to raise an eye in her direction.

“Given who my family is, there were always going to be people trying to use me to get a reaction and slap the Renard name on whatever it was they got me to say. Which is why they made me sit through a whole thing when I was twelve or so. And I had a few interactions with less-than-civil reporters trying to do just that.” Des continued to make her case.

I shook my head. “I’m sorry you had to deal with that at all. That honestly sounds like it sucks.” I commiserated with her.

Des chuckled. “Now, Bellaire, if you’d step outside, I think while that was a wonderful tactic to make him answer questions while unsettled, I do think I’ll need to relieve some of Ken’s tension before we get ready for the talk show.”

Bellaire’s eyes nearly shone, and I thought she was going to argue, but instead she gave Des a slight bow and left the room, her hips swaying dangerously back and forth as she left.

Des let out a heavy sigh and fanned herself. “I don’t know how you didn’t just slam her down into the bed. I wasn’t even the one she was focused on, and I’m so pent up I’m about to burst.” Without a moment of hesitation, Des pounced on me, making my body press into the bed beneath me as she smiled and leaned down as she ripped my pants off.