Miia peeked from behind her hands, gazing down at the colorful, twenty-sided die she'd just rolled, resting beside a lead figurine and a soda bottle. A two and a zero smiled up at Miia as she finally raised her gaze and opened her eyes fully.

"Natural Twenty!" cheered Mero.

"Woohoo! Crit-i-cal!" yelled Papi.

"Crit-i-cal!" Suu mirrored her, but she looked even more pleased with Miia's result.

Kimihito smiled, nodding at the die. "Definitely a hit. And damage?" he asked mildly.

Miia quickly picked up the appropriate die and tossed them onto the table. Numbers quickly added up to an impressive amount, and Kimihito checked the paper he had behind the Masters screen. Even with the protection spell she'd used the Wicked Queen was done for. A quick swipe of his pencil and the Wicked Queen's hitpoints had been reduced to zero. With a dramatic tip, he knocked over the chess piece representing her. He could almost picture in his mind the dark sorceress howling in defeat as she died. And tried to ignore the part of his mind that mused it sounded a lot like Miss Smith.

"Your final blow is more than she can bear, and she erupts into black smoke which quickly dissipates in the air. The Wicked Queen... has been vanquished."

"Woohoo! We won!" cheered Papi.

"Hooray!" Centorea clapped her hands together and very nearly rearing back on her hind legs, pleased beyond measure.

Rachnea scooped up Mero out of her chair for a full-body hug and for once, the mermaid wasn't protesting in the slightest as she was swung around, nearly slapping Suu in the face with her tail. Everyone was elated. They'd been through a lot, gone through beasts and burdens, but they'd finally succeeded in their adventure. The Prince was saved, evil was vanquished, and the fantasy realm they'd constructed in their heads had been saved.

Plus, it had been great fun.

"Oh man that was awesome!" Miia said, high-fiving the centaur lady beside her. "We totally ruled!"

"You ruled the most!" Papi declared, jumping up to wrap her feathered arms around Miia's neck. "Miia totally killed the Wicked Queen with her +1 Sword! Papi is super jealous! The sword rules!"

"So does its wielder," Kimihito agreed. Miia blushed, her cheeks turning as red as her scales.

"Rachnera rules also," interjected Suu. "She killed the Chimera."

Waving her clawed fingers dismissively, the spider lady preened. "Yes, yes, please go on. I enjoy praise."

"It was a team effort. I'd say we've all earned our keep for part of the adventure," Cerea agreed, reaching to either side of her and hugging the harpy and slime at her sides to her ample chest.

"Agreed, it could have gone far worse," Mero said, clasping her hands in front of her. "We could yet have all been killed, and the Prince consigned to a life forever more as a hideous slug. What a woeful fate to befall him."

There was a beat, as if the realization sunk in, and the mermaid's lovely face adopted an almost comically expression of 'what had I done?' that nearly made Kimihito burst into laughter despite his best effort not to.

"... is it too late for that to still happen?" she asked modestly.

"That ain't happenin'," Miia said proudly. "Wicked Queen just got herself dusted by my Fighter."

"You're right about that, looks like you did it," Kimihito agreed. "The Wicked Queen is no more."

"What about the rest of her forces?" asked Cerea.

He explained via narration. "After the Wicked Queen is defeated word travels quickly throughout her castle and her realm. Her forces quickly either surrender or escape into the surrounding woods," he explained. "Most are never seen again. Leaving you free to explore the castle to your heart's content."

"Then we want to hit the tall tower first," Rachnera said. "That's where the Prince must be being held."

He nodded. "Indeed he is. And he's most grateful for the rescue. That is, of course, if you can get him out of his cell."

"Oh that's right," Miia remembered. "We should've searched the Wicked Queen for the keys to his cell."

"Or one of her guards," Mero added. "Or maybe it's in here somewhere?"

"Papi casts Knock!" the harpy girl cheerfully said, waving her hands as if actually spellcasting. "Whoosh!"

Kimihito smiled at her enthusiasm. "And like before, the cell door is opened with no fuss. The Prince steps out, shaken and disheveled from his captivity, perhaps a bit dirtier than he might otherwise be, but in good spirits. He says 'Thank you for your kindly rescue, brave adventurers' and greets you all."

"And I think that's quest completion," Miia said.

"Goal reached!" Papi cheered.

"Oh, and I guess it's time to return his ring," the lamia Fighter remembered, miming the motion with her ring finger and offering the invisible jewelry to Kimihito. "For you, my Prince."

He accepted it with a bemused expression, and tried not to wince as the other girls started glaring daggers at Miia, miming putting the ring onto his finger. Making sure it was his index finger and not his ring finger. No sense sending further mixed messages to the entire household. He wanted to sleep secure tonight, not worry about being murdered and/or married in his sleep.

"Well then... I assume you all want to escort him back to the Enchanted Kingdom and his King and Queen parents?"

Nods from all around the table.

"We're not going to have another Random Encounter again, are we?" asked Suu innocently.

He shook his head. "No, no, the adventure is over... you make it back completely without incident. In fact, by the time you arrive, the entire palace is preparing for you with a royal precession. Trumpets, cheering, flower petals... the works."

"Wow, a precession, all for us," Mero gushed, brushing a hand through her pink locks. "I wish my Bard had time to properly clean up before she presented herself before the King and Queen. She needs time to wash her hair, change her clothes, freshen up..."

"Who cares how we look?" replied a snarky lamia. "Its battle damage, we look 20% cooler this way! At least!"

"I suppose we just march up right to the King and Queen with their Prince in tow," Cerea said, nodding in agreement. Then, her cheeks flushed a little. "He, uhm... he's permitted to uh... the Prince may ride my Paladin... uhm... if he so chooses."

Kimihito flushed a little at that as well, full well remembering how Cerea had described riding a centaur when they'd first met. And the cultural implications involved in such. It wasn't hard to imagine she was picturing the same sort of outcome in the game she wanted to have in real life. "He uh... he politely declines, but is most grateful for your offer," he managed to say, and without his voice trembling too much either. "But he'll just walk alongside you all."

The mermaid politely cleared her throat. "So! We're brought before the King and Queen?"

"Ah, yes, of course," their CM said after regaining his line of thought. "They welcome you back with open arms."

"Finally, a bit of respect," Miia said.

"Hail the conquering Heroes," Suu agreed.

"Oooh, that must mean its award time," Rachnera said with a grin, rubbing her sticky fingers together anxiously. "We could get lots of gold for all this."

"I wonder what we're gonna get?" asked Papi.

"The King and Queen promised us a reward," Suu said. "Maybe some magic items?"

"Maybe the Prince will reward us as well."

"I'd rather take the Prince as a reward!"

Kimihito smiled knowingly. He'd been expecting this much at least since yesterday, and prepared accordingly.

Again taking on the voice of the Catacombs Master, he described their journey home. "With the Prince safely in your company you return to the throne room of the Enchanted Castle, and he into the loving arms of his mother and father, the King and Queen. They of course, after ensuring their darling boy is alright, lavish you with material wealth of gold and silver..." here he paused, handing a sticky note with the exact amount to Miia. "... in their gratitude for saving their son and the realm."

She quickly showed the others, some of whom looked giddy at the promise of treasure. Rachnera in particular was rubbing her hands in anticipation of just what she could buy with that much gold.

"I could buy all new armor with this," she said gleefully. "Plate stuff, not that chain garbage I had to settle on before."

"Its not all yours," Suu protested. "Suu wants her cut."

"Fine, fine, we'll divide it evenly. Along with the spoils. Cerea, you still got those weapons we've been collecting off of Dark Knights?"

"Sure do. Safe and sound."

"Well if we sell those..."

There was a polite clearing of throat from the Catacombs Master. "The Prince, however, wishes to speak to each of you individually for your heroic efforts, and reward them appropriately," he went on. "So at this point I'd like each of you to leave the room and come in just one at a time. Your characters are going to be put up in rooms for the night in the castle, and the Prince will be visiting you there."

"One at a time?" asked Papi.

"One at a time," he repeated. "The idea is the Prince is going to meet each of your characters individually... when they're alone."

The more naïve monster girls didn't quite catch his choice of tone, but the others did, and felt their cheeks flush. Surely he couldn't be suggesting... and yet...

Anxious to find out just what sort of reward the Prince had in mind for them, the girls quickly left behind their Character Sheets and filed out of the room into the hallway. Some of whom were even dragged along by their more enthusiastic colleagues. Then, as instructed, each came in one after the other, speaking with Kimihito alone as the others waited, trying desperately to resist the urge to listen in. Eventually he'd gone through each and every one of them, and finally arrived at Miia.

Slithering into the room slowly, her tail flicked out to close the door behind her as she came to stand before Kimihito, who stood beside the table and wore a bedsheet draped around his shoulders. Evidently he was play acting at being the Prince for this particular bit of role play. Miia felt her cheeks grow hot and clasped her hands in front of her as she tried desperately to stop her heart from beating so fast. Wonderful fantasies flew through her head, each more wild than the last. And more than a few of them had her in something white and lacy and veiled...

"Thank you for coming, brave Fighter," Kimihito said gently, breaking up her thoughts and bringing her back to the here and now. She clasped a hand at her hip, as if holding her sheathed sword at her side. If he was going to roleplay, so could she.

"I could not have survived my captivity without the knowledge that you were coming to save me. You have saved me from a horrible fate and I could not be more grateful. The kingdom is in your debt, but more importantly so am I. I've thought long and hard on a proper reward for you, but in truth, only one seems to be appropriate."

He took her hands in hers, and Miia gazed up at her darling with baited breath as he leaned in and softly pressed his lips to hers.

"I know you risked much to rescue me, when you could have left me behind. So I thank you, Fighter."

If Miia blushed any more deeply she'd be mistaken for a cherry. She would not have been surprised if steam was erupting out of her ears at this very moment. For once in her life, words seemed to utterly fail her, and her whole body was quivering as she seemed to visibly struggle not to pounce on her Darling, rip off every last stitch of fabric covering his body, and ravage him until the end of the week.

She didn't even move as he gently pressed a hand to her cheek. "Can you go gather up the others? That's the final reward."

Blink.

"Huh?! Oh!" for a second she'd been so caught up in the story of the Human Prince and the Lamia Fighter she'd forgotten who she was. And it had been so beautiful...

Gently slapping herself back into reality, Miia nodded, squeezing her Darling's hands. As she slipped out of the room and told her housemates to get back in here, Kimihito paused momentarily to check the card he had in his hands.

It read:

Thank you for coming, brave [insert name here],
I could not have survived my captivity without the knowledge
that you were coming to save me. You have saved me from a
horrible fate and I could not be more grateful. The kingdom is
in your debt, but more importantly so am I. I've thought long
and hard on a proper reward for you, but in truth, only one
seems to be appropriate.
(reward kiss here)
I know you risked much to rescue me, when you could have
left me behind.
Thank you, [insert name here].

A self-satisfied smirk slid over his face momentarily before he shucked his makeshift cloak and the grin with it, schooling his features into something more neutral so none of them would catch on to his little deception. He loved all the girls and he hated to show affection to any of them more than the others, but this, he figured, was a nice and neutral way to accomplish both goals.

If he was wrong, well, he was in for a world of pain that would make the Wicked Queen's end look pleasant.

One by one he'd repeated the final scene for each girl to enjoy their 'Happily Ever After' before giving Miia (the final girl) a request to call them all back. Once they'd filed back in and settled back at the table, Kimihito declared the game over, at least for now. But of course, that required a closing narration.

"In the morning your characters depart the Enchanted Kingdom for new adventure," he said in his Catacombs Master voice, low and ominous. "Perhaps following gossip and rumor of an uprising to the east, or beasts on the prowl on the borders. But you will always find the Enchanted Kingdom a haven to return to thanks to your brave deeds of daring. And of course, the favor of the royal family. But for now you hit the road, off on an entirely new adventure, the horizon beckoning you ever onward."

He paused to let the words sink in, then smiled, relaxing and folding up his CM screen.

"Well, that was fun," he said with a smile. "I haven't had that much fun since high school... I don't think."

"Thank you for sharing this with us, Darling," Miia said, wrapping her arms around one of his and clinging to him. Her tail coiled around one of his ankles. "Can we play again sometime?"

"Another adventure?" he asked with a grin.

"That does sound like it would be fun," Mero agreed.

Rachnera and Cerea nodded in agreement. "We can save our character sheets for another time," the centaur lady said. "Store everything else away until we need it. You never know."

"Save it for a rainy day," Papi suggested. "Then we can play again! Papi can be wizard again! Fireball! Fireball!" she excitedly made the gesture for her spell again, making everyone laugh at her antics. Doubly so when Suu began to copy her.

"Fireball! Fireball!"

"Sounds like a plan then," Kimihito said, rolling up his sleeves and taking the important task of cleaning up the board, packing away the lead figurines, gathering up the dice (some would remain lost forever behind the couch and under the radiator) and storing away the books. Naturally, the girls helped by clearing off the table and packing away any garbage that had come from their gameplay, empty Chinese boxes and almost empty soda bottles and all manner of snack food wrappers. The fortune cookies they saved for later. Leaving their Catacomb Master free to return to his room and once more slide the re-closed lunch box back under his bed. Once more his days of 'Catacombs and Chimeras' had come to an end, and the fantasy and fun was over for the time being. Though now he had few more fond memories to look back on in the days to come, with the adventures he and his liminal housemates had shared.

And elsewhere, in the Enchanted Kingdom, the Fighter, Mage, Paladin, Bard, Cleric and their Prince settled into their own private Happily Ever After.

Until the next adventure...

Authors Notes:
Please review and favorite if you enjoyed. For this final chapter is YOUR reward.

IDarkShadowI on Deviantart was kind enough to work on some fanart related to this story. Though it doesn't capture a single scene, it definitely captures the essence of what 'Your Prince is in Another Castle' is all about. It should be up on their Deviantart Webpage in the very near future.

I'm primarily a fan of Cerea or Rachnera as the main ship for Kimihito (or his Lordship, or just plain ol' Honey) but recognize Miia had center stage of the monster harem, and they all seem to have equally good claims. I'm sure that's not coincidence on the part of the author either. So I came up with the idea to address such and yet not do so in one fell swoop with the Princes "reward" at the end of the story. He gives them each a little something without promising more. Hopefully, any major shipper can enjoy the humor and fun found here in favor of an exclusive romantic pairing.

And on that note, Happy Holidays, one and all. Enjoy your Christmas, your Hanukkah, your Kwanza, your Yuletide, your Winter Solstice, your Gift Day, your Hearths Warming Eve, or whatever else you may celebrate, or don't even, and just be happy with your friends and family anyway. Whether they be human, lamia, or Cthulu. Seriously, Cthulu needs some love too.