Herald of Steel

Facing Gelene's reasoning, Cambyses refused to lose any ground, counterattacking,

"That's hogwash! It would have only happened if Mean and you were the only players on the field. There are four of us! So even if Mean doesn't buy, the other two can, thus denying the third."

And then saying this, Cambyses turned to Alexander to say, "In fact, I will buy it. Start the auction, Alex."

"Ummm… there will be no auction in this game." Alexander however declined that offer, reasoning, "It always turns into a screaming market whenever we have auctions. So I decided unsold properties will remain unsold."

"But you can buy it if you land on it." Saying this Alexander then handed Cambyses the two dies, indicating it was her turn.

Cambyses did not bother to argue that landing on a piece of property to buy was the whole point of the games, and neither did she argue against Alexander taking out the auction feature.

Instead, she obediently rolled her die, getting a 7.

"Royal Chance!" Chance had been changed to Royal change and as Cambyses landed on it, she quickly picked a card from the stack, reading the words aloud,

"Denounce Your Collaborators! If you are in the dungeon, you can use this card to swap places with one of the players."

"Oh! So it's a get out of dungeon card." Mean who was familiar with the game chimed in.

"Yes. But here you need to choose someone to take your place. You can't go out for free." While Alexander revealed the twist.

Cambyses revealed a smirk as she set down the card, knowing just who she was going to use it on, as did the person in question.

After Cambyses, it was Gelene's turn who rolled a double of 6, causing Alexander to remind, "That's your first double!" as she brought the property Mean had landed on and then rolled again for a 4 to land on 'Just Visiting'.

Afterwards Princess Camelia rolled herself an 8 to buy her own very first property, thus it becoming Mean's turn again.

"One." Was the die result, showing Mean's luck had gone from the highest possible number to the lowest.

"Royal Chance!" And the roll caused the piece to land on the same grid as Cambyses's figurine.

Thus quickly taking the top card, Alexander saw Mean's face light up as she read, "Advance to GO! Collect 200 ropals!"

An instruction the girl seemed very excited to follow while looking at Alexander very expectantly for the cash reward.

And like her, most of the girls did not seem to see the dilemma this would put Mean in.

Only Cambyses did, and her face went dark.

But there was nothing she could do to stop this either.

"Here is your 200 ropals." Alexander on the other hand was more than happy to string the girl along, enjoying the excited face with which Mean accepted the cash, and then smugly broke the news to her.

"And now you have more than 1,000 ropals with you. So you go to the dungeon!"

"What! No! No…no… no!" The moment Mean understood she had 1,200 ropals the girl's voice burst in shock, "Hahaha hahaha." while the room once again burst into laughter.

"But .. but … I can't get out of the dungeon… I can't roll doubles." And then as she choked this,

"Hahaha hahaha." Mean's plea only worked to generate another round of giggles, with little Faiyana even clutching her stomach in bursting laughter.

Mean really did not seem to have luck on her side today.

While Alexander, amidst his chucking, reiterated, "Haha, yes, well… I don't make the rules."

"Yes, you do! You literally do. Fuck!" Mean could only hysterically shout this injustice as her piece was dragged into the dungeon space, while "hahaha," the uproarious laughter of others could be heard chiming in the background.

This even caused Mean to murmur in resentment, "You pit me, mistress!"

Cambyses could only give a rueful smile at this accusation.

She really had not taken such a thing into consideration.

In hindsight, Mean should have spent a bit of money to not let herself be caught like this.

But vision was always 20/20 in hindsight.

Thus for now, all Cambyses could do was pull a sheepish smile, saying to herself, 'Hey, at least better it was Mean than me.'.

As Mean's eyes became visibly lidded at her piece's imminent demise, it was Cambyses's turn.

And this time, by luck, she managed to land on a carriage station, which she would buy for free, thus bringing her net total to two properties.

Following that, came Gelene's turn and wouldn't you know it, she rolled another double, landing on the square that was usually the electricity utility grid, or the Guilds in Alexander's normal monopoly.

"Ah! That space is special!" But before the buxom lady would make her claim, she heard her lord chime so, before saying,

"The Guilds as you can see has had its name changed. It is now called The Temple Inquisition! Whoever lands on it, get this card." Alexander passed a paper card to Gelene, and asked her to read it.

Thus a feminine voice recited, "This is a free card. You have to take it, but it can be traded with other players."

"You have been accused of witchcraft by the local priests. And have three turns to escape to the Tibias. If you are unable to do it, the Inquisition will put you in the dungeon and seize all your properties. They cannot be brought or developed for the rest of the game."

"If anyone lands on the Inquisition before your 3 turns are up, you can forcibly hand them the card so the Temple Inquisition is after them instead. If you lose ownership of the Tibias, the countdown starts again."

As Gelene finished reading the card, then Alexander stepped up to elucidate,

"Yeah, so as you can see, the Aqueducts have been changed to the Tibias, and Gelene has to land on it within her next three turns. If she cannot, all her property will be seized and she will be thrown in the dungeon."

"Do I have to land on it? I can't just go past it?" Hearing the rule, Gelene sought to confirm this rule with a trembling heart.

"Yes… land." Came the swift nod.

"Fuuuck!" And Gelene cried out in a long drawn way, lifting her head to the sky in frustration.

"Haha haha, with your property seized, you cannot reroll any 1s. I will be waiting sister." As for Mean, she sniggered with a triumphant glow.

Suddenly the dungeons did not feel so lonely anymore.

"What does it mean the properties will disappear forever? Like until the piece disappears?" As for Cambyses, she was more interested in learning this rule, hoping she had heard it wrong.

"No. Until this game is over." However Alexander made sure to smash any such hopes, as he then turned to Gelene with a smirk, "So Gelene, don't buy any more property for now. Better yet, sell that one property you have."

"Or better yet, I can buy as such as property to really fuck with everyone!" However Gelene seemed to have other ideas, as she viciously grinned.

"....." The others had little to say. This was typical Gelene.

So it was a while later that Alexander finally broke the silence and gestured, "Okay, roll your dice again. You rolled a double."

This time Gelene landed on a property, and "I will buy it," just like she had promised, she really followed through, much to the other's scowling dissatisfaction.

But the ebony seemed not to notice.

Then came Princess Camelia's turn, and,

"King's Chest."

As luck would have it, she landed on one of the two squares where she had all the power.

Thus Alexander invited while gesturing at the stack of cards, "Great! Camelia, you can have a look through the cards and choose any you like."

The Princess felt very giddy at the prospect as she had been very curious about them from the time she got to know her powers.

She did not think she would get her chance so soon.

Thus she snatched the whole deck in one quick swipe and rapidly started to go through them.

"Heh hehe.. haha," The way she giggled as she went through them caused many to turn their heads curiously, as they then heard the fourteen year old grin, "Oh, my lord, some of them are amazing, haha."

Even as a complete novice, she could see just how busted some of these cards were.

"I will choose this." And then at last, choosing the one she liked the most, she placed it on her side before putting down the rest of the deck in its place after shuffling it.

Then she read the card, the smugness in her voice apparent, "You are a spy in the service of His Majesty. Any time another piece shares the same square as you, you can use this card to send them to the dungeon."

The other three's mouths went agape hearing this power.

While Gelene cursed, "And here I thought rolling doubles was the only way to go jail. Now there seems to be a hundred different ways to get yourself fucked over!"

In this informal setting the girls really did not hold back their cusses.

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