Chapter 21
The prince has finally come to his town, where his fellow Beanish work and socialize and do whatever they want in their lives. They do not recognize the prince behind his newly-donned gray hood that covers the upper part of his face and his golden hair. He still wears his impressive red cape as a scarf and a gray shirt and jeans instead of his armor to conceal his identity as a prince.
Peasley thought to himself about his disguise, "I must not reveal my princely identity to my people. They will treat me royally and I cannot answer how my people live in dedication to the Beanstar."
Once he steps foot on the town, a group of Beanish townspeople, all male, approach the prince and greet him, "Welcome to Bean-bean Town, stranger."
"It is a sunny day for a hood," one of the townspeople expressed about the prince's hood.
Another of them asked the disguised prince, "Who might you be?"
Peasley speaks in a deep tone and answers nervously, "I… I am a traveler from a faraway land. I am one of your people, but not of your fellow townspeople. I wish to learn of your culture and way of life in this town, in hopes of establishing a branch in the land where I come from."
The townspeople seem to be confused by the hooded prince's claim. They look at each other, sharing each other's cluelessness and shrugged at each other.
Nonetheless, the first Beanish townsperson said to the stranger, "If you wish to learn and integrate our culture to another Beanish civilization in another land, you should have a word with Queen Bean, sir."
One of them added, "She is our ruler in a line of rulers who kept the Beanstar, a relic we Beanish are inspired for our way of life in this town."
Peasley groans silently. He places his finger on his chin as gesture of thinking to himself. He comes up with an idea and suggests to the townspeople, "If I may suggest, kind sirs, that I learn your ways immediately before introducing myself to the queen… as an impressive welcome, I say."
One of the Beanish townspeople from the group agreed quickly, "Hey, that's a good idea, stranger. Be one with us and surprise the queen to share our culture to you and your people, wherever they are."
"Why don't you tell us your name, sir?" a townsperson asked.
Peasley answered, "Because of my chaotic and lawless society in my hometown, I am not given a name."
"Poor guy," one of the townspeople expressed his pity, "we'll name you a good name. How about Haricot?"
"That is…" Peasley answered awkwardly, "a fine name, thank you."
Prince Peasley, who temporarily goes by the name Haricot, proceeds to follow the townspeople. They stroll in the town, where they see Beanish farmers farming on exposed earthly patches by the southern parts of the town, those that are not covered by the floor tiles of Bean-bean Town. Peasley sees the farmers working together; they are planting beans and carrying buckets of water collected from the moat bordering the town from Bean-bean Fields. There are also Beanish children passionately working alongside their parents and adults.
One of the townspeople presented the way of farming to Peasley, "In our town, our farmers work in open patches at our town. They work together to grow crops for meals and they always have enough to convert spares to Starbeans Café, where they blend beans into delicious drinks. Yes, it is considered as a shared credit when our people work together. If one makes a mistake, they learn and fix from and with another. We never punish each other, no matter what difference we possess that diverges us."
Peasley seems unimpressed and crosses his arms in boredom.
The townsperson said to Peasley, "Why don't you introduce yourself and join them for a brief moment, Haricot?"
Another townsperson from the group courageously pushed Peasley to the farmland.
When one of the farmers see the stranger step on the farmland and nearly ruining their crops, he calmly said to the stranger, "Please step away from the farmland, stranger, you are about to ruin our crops for evening meal."
"Sorry, sir," Peasley quietly apologized.
"No, no," the Beanish who pushed Peasley into the farmland took the blame, "I encouraged this stranger to work with you just for a short while. His name is Haricot and he wants to learn our ways to build a thing in his lawless land."
"Whatever kind of thing it is," the farmer replied, "you could help me, Haricot. You can start by… collecting water from the moat into this bucket and water the Chuckle Bean sprouts."
Prince Peasley is handed an empty bucket from the farmer who assigned him to fill it with water. The corners of the town, where the moat is located, are covered with tiles, so that the water could not touch the grassy ground, so they must be watered manually or by a rare rainfall. Since the farmlands are near the southern edge of Bean-bean Town, it would be an easy task to collect water for Prince Peasley.
As the hooded prince walks towards the moat with the empty bucket in his hands, he sees a group of Beanish children reaching their arms into the moat. Peasley checked the children curiously and walked towards them to see what they are doing. Apparently, the children are trying to reach their empty bucket towards the water when its level has lowered to the point the Beanish children could not reach to fill their bucket.
"The water should come from the waterfalls of Hoo-hoo Mountain," the hooded prince of Bean-bean Kingdom thought to himself, "I hope the idiots in Woohoo Hooniversity are not involved in this. I should help these kids."
When the prince proceeded to approach the children, they did not recognize the prince because of his cloak. Instead, one of the Beanish children greeted him, "Hi, stranger. The water in this moat have somehow been drained. There is still some left we could collect, but we could not reach even one bit of our bucket on the water."
Prince Peasley offered, "I'll help. I want you all to hold onto my feet once I reach myself towards the water. Got it?"
"Yes, sir," the Beanish children complied.
The hooded prince proceeds to lay his front on the ground. His chest touches the tile border on the edge of the moat. The children proceed to hold onto Prince Peasley's legs when the prince's body is lowered towards the moat. The children struggle to take the prince's weight, but since they are in numbers, the children are enough to take the effort.
The prince proceeds to scoop the children's empty bucket and his empty bucket with the moat's water. Once filled, he ordered the children, "I have the water. Now pull me up, children."
The Beanish children grunt to lift the prince back up from the edge of the moat. Their little and combined strengths successfully pulled Prince Peasley back on the ground with two buckets filled with water.
Prince Peasley stands on his legs as the children thanked the hooded prince, "Thank you, stranger. Now we can water the seeds!"
The children ran off to the farmland to proceed watering the seeds. The hooded prince sighs as he starts to feel an emotion in his gut. He denies it with his stubborn pride as he lifts his water bucket with his hand and proceeds to water the farmland where he is assigned to work.
The farmer in charge of working with the hooded prince told him, "Haricot, is it? Thank you for watering the Chuckle Beans. Now, come and help us collect Woo Beans from a friend of mine's farmland."
Prince Peasley and the farmer went to another farmland that belongs to one of the other farmers, but as Beanish, they share each other's lands within Bean-bean Town. The farmers wear straw hats and leather clothing.
In the farmland, there is a tall tree. Its leaves are green, and the trunk and branches are bean green-colored. Some branches are attached to the green Woo Beans instead of a cluster of leaves.
The prince suggests to the fellow farmers around him, "I suggest that we use a tool to haste this labor."
"Oh, no," the farmer in charge of working with the stranger disapproved and said, "Beanish are challenged to climb this tree. The farmer in charge of this land was a descendant of the one who planted this tree. Those who intend to climb this tree must believe in himself and it must not be out of effort…"
But the hooded prince scoffed and said, "I have climbed mountains with my bare hands. It is all effort. There is no believing."
Prince Peasley proceeds to climb the tree first. He jumps from his feet and his hands reach out the highest point his jump could take him. The hooded prince lays his hands on the first quarter of the tall Woo Bean tree. He chuckles proudly at first, but in a mere second, his hands slip as he starts to fall down while holding on to the tree. He lands his butt against the ground and grunts in pain.
The farmer proceeds to speak first, "I know what you're thinking, but no, it's not slippery. The trunk of the tree has always been like this," and then, he reaches his hand out for the prince and said, "Get up, Haricot."
The hooded prince swats the farmer's hand away with his own hand and gets up on his own. He looks up and complains, "I bet the Beanish children could not even climb up this slippery tree."
He and the farmers proceed to watch the Beanish children climb up the tree. Their heads look up and their faces express determination. It takes slowly to raise themselves towards the branches of the green tree. Each of the children sit on one branch and proceed to pluck out the Woo Beans from the stems with their little fingers. Woo Beans proceed to fall on the ground to be collected by the farmers.
Prince Peasley looks in shock to what the Beanish children achieved that the prince himself could not. He says to the farmer, "I'll try again."
The hooded prince decides to start off from the root of the tree this time. Some children also start from the root and proceed to climb up. Prince Peasley proceeds to follow the children by climbing up the tall tree. His fingers clench against the tree as he reaches his arm out to lift himself up to start climbing.
He makes grunts while climbing the tree. At certain points, he could feel his fingers slipping, so he uses his palms to climb just like the children. But soon, he slips again and falls on the ground. The farmers circle around him to help him up, but the hooded prince declines their help.
One of the farmers start to complain about the stranger to the others, "This stranger is hopeless. He is like every child born out of their pods."
"Then we treat him like a child," the other farmer resolved, "as adults, we educate this stranger we name Haricot. He comes from a ruined society he wanted to fix, so as Beanish people, we share this same concern for the good of those who seek help from us."
Prince Peasley wishes to try again. He makes another jump to get to the quarter height of the tree. Once his hand latch onto the trunk, he proceeds to pull himself up with a jump again to reach halfway up the tree, where the branches and stems are. He gasps victoriously once his hands reach a branch. But the branch fatefully snapped, causing it and the prince to fall down to the ground.
Knowing that they would be rejected, the farmers ignore the prince and walk towards the broken branch to collect Woo Beans. The hooded prince raised his arm up for help, but because of his ignorance he treated to the farmers, none of them helped him up. He groans and lies down on the agricultural ground for a moment.
"We help each other… the Beanish help each other," the prince recalls a quote in his thought, "I did help the children collect water for their crops. Way before that, I offered Jojora the freedom she wanted. But everything I did was out of selfishness, so it has to help one bit in this…"
But then, the hooded prince looked up; in this angle, his princely face could be seen from above. The prince looked up to see Beanish children on top of the tree screaming out in joy for reaching the top. Their arms flail and their little hairs blow in the wind as they frolic on top of the tree.
"I don't think so anymore," the hooded prince started to doubt about his actions, "I know it is a weakness. It isn't strong, yet it is when emotion is against me, like Jojora's rage."