Herald of Steel

983 Games Night With Alexander (Part-11)

"Garden! Come on the Garden." As Gelene rolled her dice between her fingers, she chanted this strange matra, wishing to land there.

Because that would enable her to ditch all her excess money.

Even though it made no sense for her to do so from a winning perspective since for Gelene to win, she would have to multiply her money by the number of properties and then divide it by 5, but right now that seemed to be her best course of action.

By this point, most of the girls had abandoned the thought of winning.

Now, it was simply about surviving.

Gelene's wish however went unanswered as she instead landed in an innocuous space and was then dragged back to the dungeon for possessing excess capital.

Thus it came to Princess Camelia's finally.

But before rolling, the Princessturned to Alexander to state, "Well… there is no point in me using my spy card right my lord? Lady Cambyses will instead just send me to the dungeon using her card."

Given only Princess Camelia and Cambyses were the only active players on the board currently, it seemed the only piece Cambyses could swap places with was her.

"Hmmm.. yes…" And Alexander confirmed, being slightly impressed that the fourteen year old had remembered that.

But then encouraged, "But who knows… maybe Mean will get out of the dungeon. Why don't you try it?" because he really wanted to see the card get used.

"Ummm.. no, I can't." However Mean was there to quickly refute Alexander's statement, showing him her cash, "I have more than 1,100 ropals. So I don't think I can't get out even if I roll doubles."

Thus the decision was already made for Princess Camelia, as she announced, "... then I will skip the card."

Something that Alexander was indeed a bit disappointed by.

But he let the game play out as was.

Saving the card for a rainy day, the Princess rolled her die, getting an 8.

Which meant that after paying the 50 ropal checkpoint fee, she ended up on the 'King's Chance' space.

And picking the card, she read the single line in a saccharine voice completely oblivious to the contents,

"You disappear after violently falling out of the palace window onto some arrows."

"......" As Princess Camelia finished, for a brief moment the room went silent, as if they were all processing what they heard.

Many thought they heard it wrong.

Some even assumed the Princess might have misread the sentence since her Azhak was still in its infancy and the phrase 'violently falling out of a window onto some arrows' made little sense.

"Ahaha haha," But Mean's loud cackling was there to put such thoughts to rest, as she confirmed with hysterical nods, "Right! I had a good laugh when I read that… ahaha haha, 'falling out of a window onto some arrows, ahaha hahaha… what a sentence, hahaha." The girl seemed hardly able to hold back her peals of laughter as she clutched her belly, finding the entire thing almost painful.

And as if catalyzed by Mean's reaction, the others also started to laugh, with Gelene taking the card off Princess Camelia's hand to read it for herself.

And chortled upon seeing the phrase was really there.

"Wha… what? Am I dead?" While Princess Camelia seemed to be still in shock, yet to realize what had happened.

"Hehe hehe, yes." The saturated innocence in that question posed a hard challenge for Alexander to not immediately burst into uproarious laughter, and could only lightly bite his lips and nod repeatedly.

While Ophenia was much more helpful, letting the Princessunderstand, "This is a euphemistic way of saying that your piece has been assassinated."

"Ohhhh!" And finally, the meaning of the words dawned on the young Princess.

Which made her a bit sad at first that she had not gotten to use her special card.

That was a pity.

But she soon got distracted by the phrase on the cards, actually finding it quite poetic.

The blend of humor, ridiculousness, and open subtly charmed the young fourteen year old.

"As expected of my lord." Thus the princess wholeheartedly praised.

And while no one here at the table would know it yet, this phrase would one day end up becoming part of the regular Azhak language, first used to mean 'assassination' and then over time come to represent- 'an open secret'.

But all those were for later.

Right now, all of Princess Camelia's assets were taken back and her beautiful carriage figurine lifted off the board and put to the side, as the roll turned over to Mean.

First of all, the petite girl paid her 100 ropal dungeon 'service charge',

"Come on, not a 1!" And then the girl cheered this while rolling the two dice in between her delicate palms.

She did not wish for a double because there was no point.

Her net worth was still above 1,000.

And her prayers were answered.

3 and 5.

Those were her dice rolls.

"Yes!" Thus came a small pump of the fists.

After that, Cambyses's turn passed innocuously, and so it was once again Gelene's rill.

Whose only wish now, given the circumstance was to die.

Hence, completely opposite to Mean's wish, she wanted a 1.

And wouldn't you know it, she got it!

"Yes!" The lady almost jumped seeing the 3 and most importantly- 1.

"I get to die! I get to die! Here, take it. Take all the smelly money!" Gelene's loud cheer echoed throughout the room, as she scrambled to hand all her money to Alexander with a wide grin, like she was getting rid of the plague.

The rest of the table could not help but chuckle at the act.

So with Gelene's piece finally disappearing, it became Princess Camelia's turn, meaning she got to choose from the three remaining pieces.

At first, she had a large drink as part of the game and then then after a bit of deliberation, Princess Camelia announced, "Umm… I will choose the hat. It looks very nice."

The hat iron cast was painted a regal gold, with a small blue ribbon and even a tiny broken piece of diamond attached to it.

Once again the Princess marveled at the craftsmanship.

As a matter of fact, she had been eyeing this piece the whole game.

"Haha, the hat... Haha.. excellent… haha!" However that happiness in her heart seemed to dissipate the moment she heard this hearty chuckle.

Even without any real-life experience, Princess Camelia could tell something was wrong.

She remembered Alexander had reacted similarly when Mean had picked that piece which got to roll only 1 die.

"What?" And thus wondering what this piece's special powers would be, she could not blurt this single word involuntarily…. much to her own embarrassment.

For a royal, it was seen as extremely uncouth to not speak in full sentences.

'Camelia! Pull yourself together. You are here to represent your family's honor! Do not tarnish it!' She said to herself.

While Alexander read out her piece's special characteristics with that smirk still hanging on his face, "So the hat… You are a government official. You get to build three houses for free whenever you complete a collection. So if you get all the properties of the same color, the first round of houses are free." Alexander delineated to the novice Princess.

And then, while trying to announce her winning condition, Princess Camelia suddenly noticed Alexander swallow a laugh.

The reason for which soon became clear, as Alexander chuckled, "And your winning condition is… You have been caught in an anti-corruption drive. You are executed, you score nothing. That's your score."

Princess Camelia was dumbfounded.

"Hehe hehe," While the whole room instantly burst into laughter upon hearing this troll of a piece,

"So… I can't win? How do I win?" The Princess then mumbled in shock, apparently still not having gotten the joke.

"Ahahahaha," Her innocence seemed to make the crowd even more hysterical.

"Thank you for choosing that piece, sister, hehe," With Gelene showing her her appreciation by softly patting her shoulders.

"Haha, I don't make the rules." While Alexander chuckled his now becoming iconic phrase.

It was only now that the Princess finally woke up to what this piece actually meant.

"*Sniff*, okay." And thus copying Mean, the girl could only accept it with a sniff of her nose.

Playing with this piece left night and day compared to her previous one.

"At least I get to roll 2 dies," So with that mumbling self-

motivation Princess Camelia rolled her dice, landing on property that was already owned.

Meaning she owned rent.

Which instantly caused Mean to whistle, "Oh, oh! Remember, he does not do change."

This posed a great dilemma for Princess Camelia because she only had two 500 ropals notes.

And her rent was 6.

It seemed she was destined to lose her 500 note right off the boat.

"Ummm… Your Majesty, why won't I make the change for you?" However the Princess here managed to show some craftiness that none of the girls had yet displayed, proposing to do the tedious task of breaking up a huge note by her herself.

"Go ahead!" And although Alexander could have easily stopped it by claiming it could only be done by an official, swindling 500 ropals for only 6 was a bit too much even for him.

Thus the Princess managed to pass that hurdle.

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