Herald of Steel

For Princess Camelia, the following days at Alexander's manor proved to be an uneventful and even somewhat boring affair.

It was even quite different from what she had expected.

In her mind, she had assumed she would be called to Alexander's room as soon as the latter returned home to bed her.

But much to her surprise, the man largely left her alone in her private room, most of the time even barely acknowledging her existence.

And this was the same case for the rest of the household too.

The princess was allowed to mostly do whatever she wished as long as it did not get in the way of others.

Thus Princess Camelia woke up at whatever time she wished, which she usually did a bit after dawn, and then refreshed and relieved herself, washing her face and brushing her teeth with ash and a twig because toothbrush and toothpaste had not been invented yet.

After that she got dressed, while breakfast was brought to her room by her personal maid.

Then for the rest of the day, she basically did nothing.

Perhaps she would peruse some books, perhaps she would take a walk around the back gardens, perhaps she would sunbath, perhaps she would watch Alexander's four kids and Fabiyana scampering around and playing, and perhaps if she was lucky she would have someone like Nanazin or her three daughters come to accompany her.

This was how lunchtime would come and pass, as would dinner, which she had alone in her room with her maid, while Alexander dined together with his four wives and Fabiyana in the dining room on the first floor.

It was apparent that just as Princess Camelia felt no attraction towards Alexander, this lord too felt no attraction towards this difficult princess, preferring to leave her be.

And this suited her just fine.

Hence it was all the more surprising when one evening, a maid under the service of the mistress of the house, Cambyses came to her after dinner, informing her that Alexander was inviting her to join him at the parlor.

Princess Camelia was a bit confused by this at first, thinking she had misheard.

'Surely it has to be the bedroom, right? What am I going to do at the parlor?' She asked herself. Because according to her logic, Princess Camelia felt this invitation was Alexander asking her to come to sleep with him.

And the parlor was no place for that.

That was a room for entertaining guests and making small talk.

Unless Alexander wanted to play with her body there, in front of everybody!

Princess Camelia half shivered in fear, recalling all those dreadful rumors about Adhania.

The maid also refused to elaborate on anything further, claiming she did not know, fueling the princess's fears even more.

So for a very brief second, the young princess even thought about running away rather than face the humiliation.

But then logic returned to her.

Alexander did not seem to be that type of man.

Thus quickly putting on a much nicer dress and a stylish head scarf, the girl descended to the first floor and entered the parlor room with a knock.

"Ahh! Camelia you are here. Great! Come, come!" The slim girl's appearance quickly caused Alexander to turn his head and give up a light smile, before gesturing her to take a seat on the couch.

While the Princess was more than pleased to see that all her fears had been only the product of a hyperactive mind.

The room was currently brightly lit with numerous chandeliers and lamps and occupied by all four of Alexander's wives, as well as Fabiyana, who all subtly nodded in acknowledgment of her existence.

The four adult women were sitting in pairs across each other, while Alexander sat in a large, sofa in between them, at the head position.

The tiny girl sat on Alexander's lap, and all of them surrounded a small coffee table, one whose top was not made of wood but a large, single sheet of fully transparent glass.

Princess Camelia almost had a heart attack when she saw that table for the first time.

It was so rare, being perhaps the only one in the world right now, that the thing was without a doubt worth more than its weight in gold.

And right now, on that very expensive top laid a large rectangle wooden board, with various colored grids, writings, figurines, and two sets of six sided dice on it.

While next to it were various stacks of colored paper with numbers 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, and 500 written on them,

The whole thing appeared quite intriguing to the royal princess.

'Is this a board used to perform black magic!' The young girl even thought to herself excitedly.

It was of course not that, however.

This was a monopoly set that Alexander had made, albeit with all the names localized.

Furthermore, things that had been invented yet, like the rail station were changed to be now carriage stations.

Utilities such as the electricity and water supply were now The Guilds and Aquaducts respectively.

Jail was changed to the dungeon, and lastly, free parking was now simply called the Garden as 'parking' was not a thing.

As Princess Camelia took her seat next to the pair of Ophenia and Gelene, Alexander, quickly clapped his hand and announced, "Great! Now that Camelia is here, we can begin."

Saying this, Alexander then gave a short summary of how the game was played to the unfamiliar princess.

"This is a type of game that we play sometimes. You take one of the figurines and move them equal to the die you roll, buying the place you land on with this fake paper money. It's all very easy. You will figure it out as we play…."

Princess Camelia did not quite get the rules of the game yet, but seeing that her lord was in a hurry, only cleverly nodded.

While Alexander, deciding to let the princess learn on the go, then turned to the other four,

"As you can see, this a monopoly board. But I decided to tweak the rules a bit, so it's no longer the old game you know."

"It's now more of a king-poly… best played with 4 players. So today it will be Gelene, Cambyses, Mean, and Camelia. Ophenia has very graciously decided to make space for the princess." Saying this Alexander then sent the beautiful girl a grateful look, before picking up a small notebook, "Now let me read out the rules."

"Ahem… So, I'm the game master. I will be called the king. Hence the name"

"All players will start with 1,000 ropals."

"Each figurine…" Alexander gestured at the eight pieces made of cast iron, "has a unique endgame condition affecting how you'll choose to play the game."

"If you even have more than 1,000 ropals, you will be suspected to having stolen from the king's treasury and be taken to the dungeon for questioning…"

"Wait! But you start with a thousand ropals, right?" At this point, Mean suddenly interrupted, sounding a bit confused.

"Yes. So don't get any more." Alexander smirked,

"Spend the money sister! Spend!" while Gelene chuckled.

Everyone made sure to quickly register this all important rule, while Alexander continued,

"If you land on GO, you will receive 200 ropals, But if you pass it, without landing on it,you will have to pay 50 ropals to bribe the checkpoint guard."

"If you ever run out of money, well just like a normal monopoly, you will go destitute and disappear."

"Disappear? Like dead?" Hearing this unique word, Cambyses chirped to try and clarify.

"Yes, It's similar. When you disappear, the piece you are playing as is taken out of the game forever and you start with a brand new figurine from the pile. It's like the old one never existed." Alexander elucidated, before continuing.

This time, he pointed to the 'GO' space, saying,

"You can also hide money in a secret stash by landing on the Garden. You might want to do depending on the powers of the figurines you choose."

"Any money stashed in the garden will remain there until you pass it again. But If an opponent lands on Garden before you, they will take all your money and report you to the guards, sending you to the dungeons."

"They have to land on the Garden. But I can go past it." Hearing the rule, Princess Camelia spoke up for the first, asking for this confirmation.

"That's right." Came Alexander's swift rod.

And then went on to continue,

"If you roll 3 doubles, you go to the dungeon. And I don't care if they are consecutive."

"What? 3 doubles for the entire game!" At this, Gelene sounded shocked.

"Yes! Well, it restarts if you get out of the dungeon." Alexander said with a mischievous tone, finding much bemusement at Gelene's face.

Before resuming,

"While in the dungeon, you must roll doubles to get out. But if you roll 1 on any of the dice, you disappear."

"For every turn you stay in the dungeon, you must bribe the guards 100 ropals. If you run out of money and are unable to pay the guards, you will disappear and all your properties will be seized by the king."