Herald of Steel

As Princess Camelia's move ended, it became Mean's turn to go.

"Come on doubles!" The girl could be heard shouting as she shook the two dies in her hands.

And then let it rip.

The two dice quickly began to spin and spin and spin, using up their stored momentum, until,

"Ahhh!" much to Mean's disappointment, one of the dice produced a 1!

"*Sigh*, well it was nice playing with you," Thus she casually lifted the dog figure off the board, and then took a large mouthful of drink from the pitcher nearby as punishment.

With Mean 'disappearing', next came Cambyses's turn, and she landed on a 'King's Chance', something that caused her to actually curse, "Oh come on! Why this one?"

Under normal monopoly, Cambyses actually quite liked landing on 'Chance'.

But after seeing the kind of weird, quacky cards Alexander had made for this version, such enthusiasm had waned.

Now she only wanted to land on property spaces.

However, there was little she could do about it now.

Thus picking up the top card, Cambyses read,

"Secret Treasure! You have found the Royal family's long lost treasure. Pass GO within 6 turns or less and you get to keep as much money as you want. Fail and you will be caught by the royal assassins and disappear. If any other piece lands on the same square as you, they get the treasure and you disappear."

This was a good card in Cambyses's opinion, for that 'getting to choose the amount of money' clause was really convenient.

This meant there was no danger of her going over the 1,000 ropals limit.

Thus, as if to balance the pro side, Alexander put two restricting conditions.

However, Cambyses still felt she would work with that.

She just needed to cover 32 spaces in 6 turns- which had a fifty fifty chance.

And that was without counting doubles.

Hence, unless she got really unlucky, Cambyses felt confident about her chances.

Thus firmly grasping the card in her hands, the lady of the house then passed the dice to Gelene, who first had a choice to make.

After disappearing the previous turn, she now had to choose a new piece from the remaining two.

"I will have the hammer." Gelene did not spend much deliberating, randomly picking one of the two, one that took the place of the iron.

And seeing this Alexander read out,

"The hammer… You are an old widow. You do not have to bribe to pass GO. Nobody pays you any attention."

"And your winning condition is- You're dying. Add up the money in your hand and give that as the score to any other player of your choosing, replacing whatever score they have. You get half of their score."

"Hmmmm…" It took a second for Gelene to understand what Alexander was saying.

The first part was of course easy. And much appreciated as it spared Gelene that 50 ropal expense.

But the second part caused her to comment, "So ideally, I should have as little money as possible, right?"

"Yes," Alexander confirmed.

"And I can choose any player?" Gelene posed.

"Yes." Came the affirmation.

Then Alexander added some extra information by himself, "But you need to choose who you want to swap before the scoring starts. You can't know who is winning."

He at least had the common sense to balance the game that much.

Although much to Gelene's crestfallen facade.

She really thought she was on to a winner here.

But she did not try and cajole her master regarding this knowing it would be futile.

She only rolled her two dies, reaching a free space that she then bought.

Her piece's power pushed her to buy, buy, and buy.

With Gelene's turn concluding, Princess Camelia had her turn and she too bought a new property.

Hence finally it was Mean's go.

And there was only one piece for her to choose- the wheelbarrow.

And Alexander informed her regarding her powers, "You are a farmer. Once per game, you can force a player to hand over any single property when you land on that property's square."

The piece's strong power really went to show Alexander's attitude towards this huge and very critical class.

"And your winning condition is… You have become ill. Add up your money in the Garden and multiply it with your number of properties."

"What? Her power is just better than the boot?"" As soon as Alexander announced this, Gelene could not help but chime in in astonishment.

This was exactly her power except there was no 'divided by 5' rule.

"Yes. Not all pieces are equal." Came Alexander's very direct answer.

"Hehe," Mean giggled at this honest answer, quite satisfied by her powers.

But then lampooned at, "But landing on the Garden is so hard. It's literally a 1 out of 40 chance!"

Mean very much doubted she could land on it before going destitute or 'falling out of a window onto some arrows'.

Cambyses too seemed to agree, chiming in to urge, "Yeah. Alex, can't you change that?"

With these two on board, the remaining pair too joined the coalition, trying to put combined pressure on Alexander.

"Hmmmm…" And Alexander too began to see the unbalancedness of it.

Thus he decided,"Okay. You can now put away your money on any owned property you like. But if anyone lands on it, they get to keep it. And you are sent to the dungeon."

The new ruling was received with much enthusiasm as it made the task much more manageable.

"Owned property? Only owned property?" While Cambyses sought to confirm the terms.

"Yes. Only owned property. But it can be anyone's. Not only yours." Alexander elucidated.

"But we will still have to go around the board?"Cambyses twirled her finger as she then posed.

"Oh, yes." Came the immediate reply.

With the new rules set up, Alexander then also let all the players know they were approaching the end game.

"Okay, so now that all the last pieces are in play, know that the moment one of you disappears, the game ends. After that, we calculate the scores."

The girls nodded with an acknowledging nod and then started to play.

And surprisingly, they played the next four whole turns without anything major happening.

They simply bought property or paid rent, making the changes themselves.

Until that Cambyses landed on a King's Chance which read- 'Go into hiding. You have been caught smuggling salt. Miss your next two turns."

This instantly caused the matron to shout in grief, "Noooo! I was so close," because it meant she would fail to lap the board within 6 turns.

Meaning she would be caught by the royal assassins for stealing the royal treasure and disappear.

She even could not use her 'get out of dungeon free card' because she would not be sent to the dungeon.

She would just directly disappear.

But the game would not get to that.

For on her very next turn, Gelene would land on a 'King's Chest' which would read- "Message from the King. Roll a die. On a 1 you disappear. On any other roll, you get to take a property of your choosing from any of your opponents."

Needless to say, OP rolled a 1, much to her howling disappointment.

She would not believe her luck.

"And here I was thinking I could get that property from Camelia." Gelene could only ruefully chuckle at the missed opportunity of making a full set.

But with her gone, the game was finally over.

It was time for Alexander to step in.

"Okay. So let's start the count." So with this grand declaration, Alexander first turned to Gelene,

"First you Gelene. You have disappeared. So naturally your score is nothing."

"Haha," The black lady only guffawed.

While Alexander moved clockwise, now placing his gaze at Princess Camelia, "Camelia. You are the hat. You also score nothing."

The young princess only elegantly bowed in acceptance, a mirthful smile hanging on her face.

After that came Mean, where Alexander asked,

"So Mean…. How much money do you have stashed in the garden?"

"Nothing." Was the straight answer.

She simply did not get the chance to stash any money because she was always around other pieces. So was constantly afraid they would land on her space and take it.

Alexander getting the information, decreed, "Great! Nothng times your number of properties means… you score nothing."

And then lastly, Alexander turned to Cambyses.

Who had some money stashed away…but had no hotels.

So again nothing.

Having finally collected all the data, Alexander thus at last revealed in a commentator's voice,

"Okay! Fantastic! Now for the results!"

"In fourth place, we have Camelia. Mean. And Cambyses. All with a score of nothing!"

"The third, second, and first place are all empty! Congratulations you four! *Clap*, *Clap*!"

The clap was clearing meant to be sarcastic, but seeing Alexander, the others quickly joined in too.

And soon Cambyses started to satirize herself, "Congratulations! We all lost, haha. And after playing for so long."

"Or we all won, haha," Gelene was there to offer a different perspective.

"Whether you won or lost, you all did it equally. That's what all that matters." While Alexander added this joking piece, making it sound a lot like communism.

"Ahhh… It is His Majesty that really won!" While even Princess Camelia joined the fun.

"Right… It's His Majesty's win. All hail His Majesty!" And lastly, unwilling to be left out there was also Ophenia.

It was like this the long game's night finally closed its curtains.

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