Herald of Steel

With Gelene and Cambyses finally piping down, Alexander finally had the opportunity to declare his verdict on the issue of the application of the former's special power, something the two girls seemed to have completely forgotten.

So bringing their attention back to the game at hand, Alexander decreed,

"While it is true Gelene's circumstances are special, her piece is also a noble. And in real life, any judgment on a noble can only be meted out by the king. And offering to sell a property to repay a tax would be more than acceptable to a reasonable king. So I think Gelene can indeed use her powers."

"Master is the best." Gelene immediately flashed a virtuous grin at this verdict, nodding her head and cheering.

And then turned to Cambyses to smugly comment, "Heh.. hear that… and besides who is to say this rule was not just a special rule for tax evasion? One that I can break!"

It seemed she was still hung up on that argument.

"..." Cambyses's eyes only turned half lidded at this, as she then sharply turned her head, refusing to make eye contact.

Alexander could feel the salty rage bubbling in her, seeing that he took Gelene's side instead of her's, which caused him to ruefully muse, "*Sigh*, it's so hard to maintain a harem."

He had indeed issued the verdict in favor of Gelene partly as a way to favor her over Cambyses.

This was because since Cambyses already had an established place in his family after giving birth to a boy, but Gelene had yet to bear any children, the latter seemed to frequently need Alexander's reassurance to not throw tantrums.

And these small, inconsequential victories worked to help with that.

While Cambyses, although accepting of the acts, was still not fond of them.

Not that Gelene gave a hoot about that.

She was much more eager to use her newly granted authority to re roll her dice.

So 'paying' Alexander one of her properties, she let the cube spin, shouting, "Come on this time."

The crowd eagerly looked at the red die spinning and whirling on the board, as it produced a low droning sound while it slowly lost more and more momentum… until it stopped.

It was a …. 1.

"Oh, come on! After all that!" Gelene immediately let out an exasperated shout seeing the single dot on the wooden dice, despairing at the result which she had fought so hard to change only to end up at the same place.

"Hahaha haha." While Cambyses cackled in a loud, victorious voice, joined by a few others.

"Wait! The Inquisition Card! That is a property too!" But Gelene was anything if not determined, as suddenly looking at the card painted a golden hue, she presented this to Alexander, looking at him with puppy dog eyes.

She was apparently asking if she could use this to buy another re roll.

But at the same time Gelene was gazing at Alexander, the man also felt Cambyses's scorching rays directed at him from the other side.

It clearly signaled that lady of the house would not accept this ruling.

And after a bit of reasoning, Alexander started to lean towards the latter.

He claimed, "The Inquisition Card is not a property, You cannot buy. It is more like a mark. So no."

Gelene's rosy cheeked puffed a bit in annoyance as soon as she heard this.

But she did not protest.

She had assumed as much.

Thus with a reddened face, she reluctantly brought out another property card, her last one, and rolled again.

She was really glad she had decided to buy that property and not heed Alexander's advice.

"One! One! One!"

And as she rolled, Cambyses chanted this malevolent mantra, much to Gelene's irritation.

"Yes!" However, as evidenced by Gelene's loud cheer, it seemed Cambyses's prayers had gone unanswered.

This time, fate decided to finally smile at the ebony lady as she rolled a 4- an even number.

Gelene was finally out, moving her piece that number of squares.

And thinking her turn was finished, then she started to count the number of squares to 'Tibias',

"One.. three.. three.. fourteen… I need to have fourteen. So some kind of double and then…"

Even with all the setbacks, Gelene still refused to admit defeat and instead continued to do various calculations in her head to try and salvage her piece.

It really showed how competitive the girl was.

Although much of that was for nothing, as with a wide grin Alexander decided to interject the girl who was lost in deep thought,

"By the way Gelene, how much money do you have?"

The man watched with quite a bemused expression as Gelene's flushed face turn pale white the moment he asked this.

It was like she had just seen a ghost.

She knew perfectly well what Alexander was alluding to.

"No! No! No! But I just got out!" And she whined while lightly stomping her feet, frantically trying to count her money, "One… six… thousand.. eleven… fuuuckk! This is such a stupid rule."

Her curse was alongside accompanied by a loud chorus of laughter from all the girls.

That 500 ropal gift she had gotten from the king ended up being her undoing as her net worth became 1,175 ropals.

So Cambyses picked up Gelene's piece, and chuckled, "Where are you going sunshine?" before putting it back in prison.

It seemed all that bitter bickering the two had made no difference in the end, much to the rest of the board's amusement.

The result had Gelene clutching her head with both hands like she had lost her entire life's work, while the rest, after a short giggle, decided to move on.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity was at last, it was once again Princess Camelia's turn.

And she rolled to double, buying a property.

And then she rolled again, getting another double, causing Princess Camelia to involuntary shout, "Dammit!" much to the other's amusement.

This was the first time they heard the girl genuinely lose control of her emotions.

And realizing the imbroglio she just made caused Princess Camelia to blush a bit.

That was very unladylike.

"I would to buy that!" Thus in an attempt to quickly cover it up, the princess turned to Alexander and chimed so, pointing to the square that was usually Mayfair- i.e.- the most expensive property placed just before GO.

"Ahhh! No.. you can't buy that. It's special!" However, Alexander seemed to have other plans as he playfully smirked.

The princess could only roll her eyes at this, "Oh, what is it this time?" while Cambyses could not help but groan from the other side.

Alexander explained with a little grin while pointing at the board, "So as you can see, the last two properties have been changed. The square Camelia is on is now called the Guard's Quarters, while the property next to her is called the Palace. You cannot buy these places, but both have special rules."

"Landing on the Palace," which was Park Lane, "lets you add 1 rule to the game for one turn."

The moment Alexander said this, everyone's eyes lit up in amazement at this game breaking power.

While "*Hisss… missed it!" Princess Camelia again would not help but make this hissing sound of regret and then instantly blushed, lowering her head in shame.

Being only a fourteen year old, she sometimes had trouble controlling her emotions, much to her own chagrin.

"Heh, heh," Alexander humourlessly chuckled at this innocent display. The girl did not appear to be too petulant in his eyes by now.

Following the rule on the 'Palace' square, Alexander then subsequently moved on, now bringing his index finger to the Guard's Quarters square.

He read, "So when you land on the Guard's Quarters for the first time, you are taken in for questioning. That means you lose your next turn. The next time you land on it, you are sent to the dungeon. And the third time you land on it, you disappear."

Saying this, Alexander then turned to Princess Camelia and ruled, "So Camelia, since you rolled doubles, you don't get to roll again. Your turn ends here. You can roll again in the rest round."

Still embarrassed from that low pitched hissing sound, Princess Camelia could only keep her head down and curtly nod.

At this point, it was Mean's turn again, and it seemed lady luck was finally smiling on her, because wouldn't you know, she rolled a double, getting to buy a lucky property and then ended up right in the Garden.

"Yes!" The petite girl instantly cheered. This was her winning condition.

"Great. You would you like to stash some money in here?"

"Of course." Mean accepted Alexander's offer in a heartbeat as she then quickly started to count her notes, flipping through her stack with expert precision.

Then handing Alexander a 500 and 100 ropal note, she announced, "Here! 600 ropals. That will leave me with a good hundred and five, (105) ropals to make it across the board."

This time Mean was determined not to get blindsided by any foreseen circumstances.

And then it came Cambyses's turn- where her roll got her on the Guard's Quarters, right next to Princess Camelia's piece.

Alexander smirked seeing this.

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