Herald of Steel

With Princess Camelia having obtained her special card, the turn once again circled back to Mean, who was currently in the dungeon.

"Well… there is no point right in me rolling right?" And showing her single die, the short girl flattened her lips at her inevitable demise.

"Oh now don't be like that. Be optimistic, haha." While Alexander 'sincerely' advised so with a chuckle, with others joining in.

"Oh you sick man." And affected by the joyous atmosphere, Mean at last let out a small grin, as she then rolled her single dice.

"1!"

"Hah hah," The room burst into another chorus of laughter while Mean's grin instantly turned flat like a pancake, as she just died.

And as her piece was then disposed, suddenly Mean found herself joining in too, giggling instead of despairing, "Yeah! I'm going to die."

To her, playing with this handicapped dice was worse than not playing the game at all.

Thus Mean was actually glad to relieve herself of it.

With the first 'death' of the game, Alexander instructed with a wave of his hand, "Okay, so with that 1, the thimble is gone. Remove it from the board. It's like they never existed. And return all your money and properties to the king."

Mean had no property but she did have 1,200 ropals in paper currency.

So Alexander collected all of that, and then turning to Mean posed, "Now you can choose from the remaining four pieces."

"Wait! So there is no penalty for dying?" However before Mean could complete that, suddenly Cambyses spoke with a surprised tone,

To her that seemed like a no brainer.

"Mmm… I have not really thought about it. What would you like?" And as Alexander had not thought to be such a big deal, he had not bothered to think up any such contingencies.

Hence he asked Cambyses what she had in her mind.

"Ummm…" And as she hummed, the very first thought that came to Cambyses's mind was to make the loser strip a part of her clothing.

The girls did play something similar to it while playing poker.

And it made the games much more 'fun'.

There would be Mean sitting with her flat chest with still a skirt on, there would be Gelene's abundant breasts with only bra on, there would be Cambyses with her upper torso fully covered but her lower half fully open for all to see, letting Alexander grope her ass, and there would be Ophenia who often times nothing on, sometimes even intentionally spreading her legs to let Alexander and even the other girls to play with her piercings.

These tantalizing spring scenery would occur many times during some of the rauchy games night and turn it into something much more enjoyable.

And this time Cambyses was also interested in seeing Princess Camelia in her birthday suit, being curious to see how a blue blooded princess was different from the rest of them.

Would she have creamy white, flawless skin?

Would her skin be smooth like a baby's bottom?

Would her nipples be pure, flawless pink?

Would they stand out in the cold?

Would she be totally shaved down there?

Did she even grow hair down?

Did she even have a hole?

What is perfect like they said it was- Just a thin, faint line?

Did she have a butthole like the rest of them?

Was it brown or pink like a perfect diamond?

Such as many other genuinely curious questions rang inside Cambyses's mind, as she had never seen a true princess all bare before.

So her eyes yearned to see, her nose yearned to smell, and her hands yearned to feel.

But such thoughts only lasted for an ephemeral second, as the lady of the house quickly thought herself out of it.

This was not the time or place for such frivolous things.

Princess Camelia was still too young in her husband's eyes and Fabiyana was also present, who was definitely too young even in her eyes.

"Let them drink a full cup!" Thus this was Cambyses's alternative decision.

And no one in the room seemed to have any objection to this.

Hence a large, ornate cup was quickly filled with sweet wine and Mean was forced to down it all.

"Ahhhh!" And as she let out a breath of relief once finished quaffing it all down, the petite girl's face went a bit flushed, and she slurred as she chose her piece, "I... I will choose the dog now!

With her choice made, Alexander then quickly read out the details on the figurine,

"Okay, the dog... You are a rich merchant. You can choose any card when you land on King's Chance."

"And your winning condition is- You are denounced. Your score is half of the money you stashed secretly in the Garden."

Mean finally gave a sigh of relief hearing this, "Finally. Something good."

And the various nods coming from the rest of the table did seem to indicate that.

With Mean finally being able to play with two dice, she quickly rolled and… finally she got to own her first property, quickly buying it.

This time, she did not bother thinking whether it made sense for her to buy it or not.

Which according to pure logic did not.

Her ideal winning condition should be to land on Garden and stash 949 ropals, then pass GO, paying the 50 ropals as a bribe to the checkpoint guards, thus leaving her with only 1 ropal, and avoiding destitution.

Then she will have to pass Garden once more, hence securing the money after which she would be sent to the dungeon through either being unable to pay rent to the property owners or being unable to bribe the checkpoint guards.

And then once in the dungeon, as long as she managed to stay in there for one turn, she would disappear for not being able to pay 100 ropals 'prison fee.'

And like the helpful mistress she was Cambyses once again retold all this to Mean, asking her to skip buying any property.

"This time will not be like last time. You can control the chance cards now." She claimed.

But for Mean, the past scar proved too fresh.

So in a very rare case of ignoring Cambyses, Mean decided to play the game like the old monopoly, saying, "Let me buy some. Maybe it will come in handy. Who knows what mad things Alex has put in those cards?"

And seeing her mind made up, Cambyses did not interject.

Instead, knowing it was her turn, Cambyses rolled, unfortunately landing on the same tile as Gelene.

"I own that!" The black lady instantly chirped, and then started to go through that property card, "Ohh… that be… which number was it… here, it will be 2 ropals in rent please."

This created a problem for Cambyses because she only large change, her smallest denomination being 50.

And even Gelene seemed unable to break it for her.

"Ummm… could I have some change please?" Thus turning to Alexander, Cambyses handed give the 50 ropal note asking for some 10s and 5s.

"Thank you! The rent has been paid." But instead, Alexander only took the note and stacked it on the pile, before throwing Gelene two 1 ropal notes and gesturing her to take her turn, indicating that he had no intention of paying Cambyses back the rest.

"Ahaha haha," Everyone had a loud chortle at this, except Cambyses, who shouted in a bit of a spoilt voice,

"No. No. This is not fair. Can I have at least some back, please?"

But Alexander did not seem to be in a generous mood, smirking in a fake imperious voice, "Don't tell me what is fair and what's not. I'm the king. There are… administrative costs to these things. Processing fees. I have lots of mouths to feed."

"Administrative costs! Twenty five… twenty four times times the rent? What kind of administrative costs are that!" Cambyses could only incredulously shout so with an amusing chuckle,

Alexander was more impressed that Cambyses was able to so quickly do that math, and so accurately too.

Most would take the 50 ropals note and divide it with the 2 ropals rent.

But here, the rent was 2, so the 'administrative costs' was 48 ropals.

"Don't question me. I am the king." Towards Cambyses's fake indignation, Alexander only nonchalantly shrugged, "I can do whatever I want. I don't work for you peasants, menially changing coins!"

"Ahaha haha," Alexander's teasing answer produced another round of laughter, with everyone flashing their pearly whites.

Although the girls here failed to completely miss the dark tone here, since just as stated by Alexander, kings really could do whatever they wanted.

Examples where a ruler metaphorically swindled 50 ropals for only 2 ropals were a dime a dozen

With even Cambyses merely jesting the threat under her muttering, "Be careful. I heard kings like you don't tend to last very long."

She however obediently piped down when Alexander asked her to speak up once again, quickly replying, "Nothing!"

Thus the turn then rolled over to Gelene, and she rolled a 3, landing on a 'King's Chance."

"Fuck! This game doesn't give me a break!" And as she read her card, the ebony beauty loudly cussed so.