Chapter Text
It's a beautiful sunny day outside in the Kingdom. The wind is cool and the sea is breezing. On days like these, it's a perfect time for kids to play and frolic in the fields, or for villagers to start doing laundry, or just for people to enjoy their day. The town is buzzing with plenty of humans living their life to the fullest. Each and every person with their own ambitions all in one nation united through their loyalty and support towards the Royal Family of the Tri-Hridaya Kingdom.
During this peaceful day comes crashing in a loud screaming noise from the prince’s bed chamber. Bacon wondered how he was able to hear it even though their rooms were miles away.
The head butler, Bacon, sighed and walked tediously towards the location. He arrived and curiously opened the door to witness the prince he's serving all sprawled up on the floor like a dead chicken. While holding his shame, he went to go help the poor prince out.
“Just what happened that made you all tattered like this?” Bacon asked as he gave a hand.
“I thought I saw a bug and freaked out.. Apparently it was just a loose button.. “ Planet, the prince himself, is heads down and covers his face with his hands.
Before Bacon absorbed the negative aura from Planet, he helped the prince stand up and tidy his clothes. At the same time, guided him to sit down on a chair and prepared a goblet of water for Planet to drink on.
“Besides that, where are the guards? I thought I already instructed them to stay on your doors all night. This is very unprofessional of them.” Bacon noticed that before he went inside, the door was unopened and no guards were on sight. When Planet screamed there should've been at least a guard inside the chamber already or at least banging on the doors.
“Oh uh.. I told them to go back and rest… that's my fault.” Planet said innocently, not minding the nasty eye from Bacon.
“Oh my God, I already told you countless times, Planet. These guards are PAID full time to protect you for all hours. You should NOT be letting your guard down during these times.” Bacon held Planet’s shoulders with both hands and stared directly.
“Remember, YOU are the crown prince of the Tri-Hridaya Kingdom, one of the most influential kingdoms in this island. The king died a month ago and you are to be elected as the next ruler in about five months. This is NOT the time for you to be unaware of the danger you could possibly be in!” Before Bacon could ramble for ten years, Planet held his hand and smiled solemnly.
“I know Bacon, and I understand that I chose this path willingly.” Before Bacon could refute, Planet stopped him. “However, every time I took a look at them, they were always so rigid and stiff. It made me wonder if they were able to rest when I have activities to do daily.”
“Haah, you are always so caring, Planet. The nobles will have an easy time manipulating you..”
“Why don't you become king then, Bacon?”
“Anyways, would you like me to inform you of your activities of the day, your Royal Highness?”
“I would be delighted to be informed, my dearest aide.”
After explaining Planet's schedule, Bacon excused himself to go and call the guard to start working. He wondered if the royal knights even wanted to serve the royalties or not. Perhaps Bacon should schedule a motivation speech for the knights.
Before he knew it, he had already stepped into the knights' territory. He took a short breath, and opened the door only to witness a loud, chaotic and barbaric scene right in the center of the room. After observing carefully, there seems to be some sort of competition happening between two sides of the crowd. Trying to blend in as much as possible, he's able to get through the crowd and watch from a desirable distance comfortably.
Bacon saw two figures standing face-to-face. One with his chest up and a wide smirk, while the other has his arms crossed and a stoic face. Another thing he noticed is that both of them were wearing blindfolds. One black and the other orange. The knight in black blindfold was holding something in his hands which might have a correlation with this competition, although the orange blindfolded knight was holding nothing and kept his stance.
Bacon was very much curious and looking forward to the incoming battle totally very unwillingly. Then suddenly, a chant was starting where the audience were telling them to start. “START! FIGHT! START! FIGHT!” kept being said in a consistent rhythm.
“Alright alright,” The knight with the orange blindfold said loudly and the crowd went silent in anticipation. “Why don't we let our rookie start this match? Let's see just how prepared he is to battle!” He said followed by loud cheers that made the room rumble.
‘What kind of match is it anyways? Both of them didn't even bring a weapon, unless it's a brawl.’ Bacon wondered as he stared back-to-back between the two opponents.
“You better feast your sense into what I brought, bro. Because this is the REAL thing!!” Then, the rookie knight pulled up a golden ring with a huge gem embedded on it. The crowd started admiring it saying ‘ooh~’ consecutively.
Taking a closer look at the gem, it seems to be a large piece of ruby with a dark maroon tint to it. ‘Wow, that single piece of ruby itself could afford about five hundred loaves of bread.’ Bacon wondered while he bit his finger.
“THIS is a one-of-a-kind ruby ring that a generous merchant gifted me after I saved her from an attack by thieves. I had to fight against 10 armed people by myself! Fortunately, she along with all of her things are untouched thanks to my efforts! at the cost of a few scars..” Sounds of ‘woah's and ‘wow's are spoken by the crowd while the other knight is still standing firm, almost seeming uninterested.
“Oh Flame's definitely winning this!”
“Nahh, I'm sure Mane's got something in his hands!”
“You're joking, he has only been stuck inside this castle doing God knows what. There's no way he has something more valuable than that!” Before the argument goes any further, the taller knight, which Bacon assumes to be Mane scoffed, crossed his arms and retaliated.
“Alright fellas, looks like it's my time to shine now!” The crowd immediately went ahead to cheer and woo for him. Suddenly, all eyes were on Mane. As the crowd were anticipating what he's going to show, Bacon somehow got himself to be interested, almost forgetting the reason why he came here in the first place.
Then, Mane pulled something out of his breast pocket. He opened his hand to show a dangling shiny pocket watch, coated with rhinestones and a piece of topaz laid on the middle of the watch, acting as its centerpiece. The crowd was silent, as if they're taking their time to observe.
“..uh, it's just a pocket watch,” Flame said uninterestedly, “What's so valuable about it?”
“Psh, you're gonna want to sit down for this one, because it's a LONG story.” As one of the knights said that, Mane cleared his throat and started his storytime.
“This pocket watch, some may say there's little to no value. It's just a watch with a tiny piece of gem in it, only costing about 50 gold coins. But you all must know that I did not get this from some random person, no,” Mane went silent for a bit before continuing.
“This watch.. was gifted to me by the lost crown prince of this kingdom.” Bacon could hear gasps and shocks all around, even Flame's face was in surprise.
The lost crown prince.. which is, well…
Prince Baconnwaffles0.
What a shocker.
'Oh boy..' Bacon muttered inside his heart.