Herald of Steel

<ABDHYSZSABCFLH4TA> 10 FPs

While Princess Camelia was busy concentrating on observing the newfound dynamics between Cambyses and Gelene, she completely missed the pitying look that Alexander was giving Mean.

Because he saw what piece she had chosen.

And he knew she wouldn't be laughing for long.

Her powers were not that great.

But there was no way to avoid revealing it either,

Thus turning to the short girl, Alexander lightly smiled, "So Mean, I see you have chosen the thimble. That's fantastic."

'Yep! I always choose the thimble." The girl failed to detect the very subtle sarcasm there and instead grinned upon hearing this, putting the small figurine in her dainty pinkie and wiggling it to show it off.

She appeared very excited to know what cool power this favorite piece of every day item would hold for her.

Now, a thimble was basically a metal cap women wore on their fingers during sewing to prevent needles from pricking themselves.

It was created by Alexander as a gift to the ladies working in Gelene's shop, to let them avoid these small but very irritating injuries.

And Mean too had taken a liking to this simple but ingenious design, using it whenever she stitched something herself.

She even had various custom made thimbles for her, with some having gold workings and very expensive jewels embedded into them.

The girl was indeed quite fond to it.

It was also knowing this love that Alexander had decided to play a prank on her when he was coming up with the rules, deciding to make the piece ' very accurate'.

Hence, trying his best to keep his laughter in check after seeing Mean's excited face, Alexander at last announced, "So you are the thimble. It means you are a slave. Your special power is you get only one die."

"Ahhh haha haha." The instant Alexander said this, the biggest one to laugh among this chorus of elation was undoubtedly Gelene, who felt karma had come swift and early.

She was quickly followed by Cambyses and Fabiyana who too did not hold back

While Ophenia and Princess Camelia tried their best to maintain their natural elegance, although that was proving much harder than expected as expected by both women's pursed lips and flushed cheeks.

They too had enjoyed Alexander's prank.

The only one who did not find it funny was Mean, who fumed with incredulity, "Are you being fucking serious? Is this real?... But… I need to roll doubles to get out of the dungeon right?"

"Ahhh haha haha." The room burst into another round of euphorious laughter as soon as she said, and this time, even Alexander could not help but join in, chuckling with a swift nod,

"Ha ha, yeah… so don't get sent to the dungeon."

"..." For a few moments, Mean was stunned while Gelene made sure to throw her own punch, smirking, "Being a slave suits you sister, hehe."

Mean's lips slowly dropped at finding out her power, as she then sniffed in a fake choking voice, lowly bobbing her head, "... okay."

"And your winning condition is- You have been beaten to death by your master. Your score is the amount of money you have in your hand minus the score of the player left of you." Alexander at last finished reading the rules.

"That's not bad. Sounds very simple." And hearing this, Cambyses could not help but chime in genuine appraisal,

Although Mean did not seem to be in the mood to celebrate, the shadow of that 1 die still hanging over her, as she could be heard menacingly murmuring, "I want to beat 'you' to death!"

The 'you' here was of course, Alexander.

While the pseudo bystander Princess Camelia was a bit taken aback by the laidbackness being displayed here.

She had never seen husbands and wives interact so freely.

It was considered almost sacred that wives would obey and almost worship their husbands as lords.

This was the case between her father and mother too.

They certainly loved each other.

But there was an undeniable hierarchy too.

So seeing that absent here, it surprised and even somewhat shocked Princess Camelia.

The others were naturally unaware of the Princess's crisis of faith.

"Okay, let's start."

Instead, with the rules done, Alexander finally asked the girls to start rolling, starting from Mean and

going in a clockwise direction.

And thus, with the roll of just a single die, the game began!

"Six!" The petite girl cheered as she managed to roll the highest number possible right on her very first go, and moved her piece by that number of spaces.

"Can I buy that?" Then turned to Alexander to pose.

"You sure can. How much is that?" Alexander asked the girl to read the number written on there, while working to convert the 500 ropal bill she handed him into the appropriate change.

"I don't understand why you are buying property, Mean. It makes no sense for you." However just then, Cambyses, who was to Mean's left, decided to interject with these words.

And as it drew all the curious looks, the lady of the house explained her thoughts,

"Mean's winning condition is to have as much money as possible in her hand without being sent to the dungeon right? That way she can deduct the highest number from my score. Meaning she should ideally have a thousand ropals in her hand. So why should be waste her money buying property? It makes no sense!"

A look of realization dawned on most, including Princess Camelia, as Cambyses repeated her statement, while Alexander curled his lips being impressed.

He was indeed quite pleased by Cambyses's insight, one that enabled her to overcome the natural instinct developed while playing a traditional monopoly.

In that version of the game, whenever you landed on a property there was really only one option- to buy it.

Only under very extraordinary circumstances would you choose not to do that.

But here, where you could not go over a limit or reach zero, and passing GO did not automatically generate money, one had to be much more frugal and methodical.

And the fact that Cambyses was able to instantly see through that reasoning, and with such a subtle, sublime effort was enough to more than reassure Alexander that he would have little problem leaving Zanzan's day to day administration to his wife while he was out winning wars.

Simultaneously, seeing Cambyses's reasoning, Princess Camelia felt enlightened and people like Mean, Ophenia and even Gelene felt reminded why Cambyses was the mistress of the house.

It was not just because Alexander favored her more than them.

"I… I will not buy it. I skip." Hence, after having the logic pointed to her, Mean quickly retrieved her bid for that property, as well as taking back her 500 ropal note from Alexander.

"Now that I think about it, isn't the thimble actually quite good?" And in conjunction with that act, for the first time, Ophenia decided to voice her opinion, lifting her index finger up and explaining, "Think about it. The biggest danger of you disappearing is rolling three doubles and landing in the dungeon. But with only 1 die, that's clearly impossible. All Mean needs to do is outlast the other three and she will win!"

Alexander clearly saw how Mean's face visibly lit up as soon as this was said, like she had suddenly discovered a pro gamer strategy.

She felt her heart was flying.

"I don't think so." Until it suddenly was suddenly tugged down by this cold reply.

It was from Gelene.

"Oh… pray do tell, your ladyship!" And this made Mean pull a nasty face, snarling this sarcasm.

This referred both to Gelene's real life title and her current piece's identity.

The black beauty however seemed totally unfazed by Mean's sarcastic remark.

Instead, putting on an analytical face, she pointed out, "If Mean does not buy property, that means it will be left for the others. And that will give them more chances to complete a set." "This will subsequently mean Mean would have to pay higher and higher rent as houses and then inns are built on them. Worse, with just one die, she would not be able to roll past those sections even if she wanted to."

"So the best thing would be for her to spend a bit of money and buy at least one property from each colored section, thus denying the others that chance."

It seemed Gelene too had her point and was not simply saying things to spite Mean.

And now hearing both Cambyses's and Gelene's argument, Mean suddenly felt confused.

Up until a moment ago, she had been cock sure about Cambyses, but now…. Her mind was swinging like a pendulum.

And she looked at Alexander for help. Then cursed in her mind upon seeing that smug, nonchalant face.

He was not going to offer any advice.

For Alexander, this was what games night was all about.

Seeing the girls sweat their brains and scheme for victory.

With the reward being able to monopolize him for a whole week all to themselves.

Something which was another brand new experience for Princess Camelia, who was even unable to fathom the deep hidden layers of the game.

'Isn't it just a game? Why so serious?' She hence called out in her heart, wondering if she was missing something.

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