The Fourth Wall

Chapter 2 - In the Eyes of the Void

   Being a gardener was certainly not Kog's wannabe job. And being a gardener-bartender-dishwasher-housekeeper-maintenance-maid and future to be butler was worse. Having those kinds of jobs, full time per day without any payment was the same as sacrificing your soul to Satan. Only that Satan was disguised as your best friend, and he was named as Phan.

   He also found it unsettling, the fact that the prince was unquestionably irresponsible, yet admired by everyone. For an instance, princes were supposed to be training like a knight, who fights like a war machine, who thinks like a general. With inspirational leadership, motivating bravery, and mighty power— that was what a real prince was like.

   But as you look at Phan, well . . . He's a skinny untrained coward who's completely lacking with all the things a prince must have, except for riches, gold, and fortune. Which was now gone due to the goblins. So Phan was more like peasant who stole robes from a prince.

   While for Kog, he's buffed, tall and everything. So handsome that even he himself admired his handsomeness. He's not a trained warrior, but he's dad— which he's not certain whether dead or alive— taught him how to fight with a spear. But there's no spear around, which made him something as useless as Phan, but, at least he have his muscles and he knows how to cut bushes. And! And! He can wash dishes too! With an incredibly fast speed!

   After they got away from the castle, after he dropped Phan in the nearest tree, he went back for minutes looking for his father with full hope that the old guy was still alive.

   But after a minute or two, he lost courage and turned back. He had to see the gruesome scene after the attack. Cold dead bodies everywhere. Blood replaced the mud in the ground. . . He can't simply just see more of it. Of course, his father matters for him, but after seeing the very scene, he was just afraid of what he might see. He's frightened of seeing his father's carcass, lying over.

   It will break him.

   So instead, he ran into the stable and miraculously found the horses alive. He took two horses, Mandate and Federal. He walked them outside the castle, fortunately not bumping into any beast, and finally reached Phan, whom he found staring at him.

   "What?" Kog raised an eyebrow. "Transportation."

   "Where the heck did you get those?"

   "I don't know, maybe the stables?"

   Penny rode Mandate without saying anything, which was quite unusual for Kog, because, the prince was very well known for being a word machine gun. After Kog rode his horse, Federal, the animals used their hooves to drive deeper into the woods.

   "Kog, if you ever have a chance to choose what you want to be, what will you choose?" Phan asked, breaking into an unusual conversation.

   He gawked at the prince for a while, and then smiled a little. "I wanted to be like you, Phan. A prince."

   "I swear Kog, being a prince isn't exactly what it looks like." Phan seemed serious. "I mean, prince are just, questing dragons princess kingdom happily ever after the end."

   "That's exactly the reason why I like to be one." Kog admitted. "Easy life, easy living. The food would be right in front of you and you won't even need to take a scoop to have it in your mouth— someone will always do things for you."

   He heard Phan gasping. "That kind of life doesn't make sense at all." The prince replied.

   "For people like me, it does."

   "Well, you never lived my life."

   "You never live my life either."

   The prince was about to say something, but he stopped, so Kog just focused his eyes at their path. Looking at the dirt road that leads to nowhere, the trees which seemed to be trying to hug them, giving them enough breeze and shadow away from the hot sunlight.