The narrative shifts away from the scene in the Sahara and the conversations with the pilot. It flashes back to the prince’s journey through the asteroid belt after he leaves his home planet.

The little prince decides to visit several planets because it is something to do; besides, he wants to learn. On the first planet he visits, he meets a king. The king sits on a huge throne wearing a beautiful fur cape. When the little prince arrives, the king shouts, “Ah, here’s the subject!” This surprises the little prince, who wonders how the king could know what he is. The prince does not yet know that a subject is a person under a king’s command and that this particular king considers himself in command over everyone he ever meets—which is normally nobody at all.

The prince and the king have a hard time communicating. First the prince yawns, and the king orders him to stop. The prince explains that he is tired, so the king changes his mind and orders the prince to yawn. This makes the prince too nervous to yawn, so the king relents and orders the prince to yawn only when he feels like it and not otherwise.

This sort of conversation is typical for the king, who wants to rule absolutely over everything but also wants to be kind and sensible about his commands. He realizes that he cannot order anyone to do the impossible because the order would not be obeyed. Because of this, he constantly commands things to happen only when he knows they are about to happen or when they have already happened.

The little prince asks for permission to sit down and is promptly ordered to do so. After settling himself on the ground, the prince asks what the king rules, and the king explains that he rules over the entire universe. The prince feels that this would be exhausting and frightening, although he imagines that he would see many more sunsets if he were the absolute ruler of the universe.

As he thinks this, the prince realizes that he feels like watching a sunset right away. He asks the king to order one, but the king explains that he can only command a sunset to occur at 7:40, when it is time for a sunset to occur. This leaves the little prince feeling gloomy, so he says he wants to go.

The king begs the prince to stay and become minister of justice, but the prince points out that there is nobody to judge—except himself, but he can judge himself anywhere. The king offers the little prince the chance to judge a rat but the prince does not like this idea. He declares that he is going to leave. He gives the king a chance to command him to leave, but the king refuses to do it. Then, just after the prince takes off, the king appoints him ambassador. This way he feels that he is commanding the little prince’s journey after all. “Grown-ups are so strange,” the prince mutters as he leaves.