I look over at the servant in our carriage and he seems to have trouble with the complete silence we have. I must admit it did become very loaded. I can almost not let it be, the perfect chance, “So, what juice topics circulate under the servants that you can safely talk about?”

The servant nearly jumps after I suddenly talk to him.

“One of the maids recently got a baby, and it became a happy family of four now. That is the only safe thing I can think about. I think that does not help you.”

“Depends on how likely it is that we see her.”

“She works within the queen's quarters as a washing helper. I do not think you will ever meet her.”

“Unfortunate. Could you explain a bit about the appraisal skill we got and all the other basic info on the status displays?”

“Appraisal at level max will reveal all secrets unless the target also has level max appraisal or a different status hiding skill at level max. But the only way to get skills at level max is a gift from god. You can otherwise keep on leveling and reach over level 100 without ever reaching the max level.”

“So our status is hidden from all eyes and we can see the status from everyone except people with a gift from god.”

“Yes, but those gifts are very rare and you might not even meet someone who has a gift like that.”

I try appraising him.

I continue the talk, “Can it not be very rude to appraise people you do not know?”

“Yes, but that is why the god prevents appraisal and other scrying skills to not be used if you are not in conflict with a different party. That prevention makes it very easy to know when someone is of a party you are fighting against. The one exception is when someone gives permission to appraise.”

“I see, and what about the rest of the status screen?”

“Well, name, gender and race should be easy to understand. Level displays how strong a person is. Class tells you what you can do best, this does not mean that it is your job. Plenty of people have chosen a different path and became successful.” I am so glad. I have Tank as my class. I rather give people pain than take it. “The skills tell you what you can and cannot do, and lastly the titles are actions that the god has acknowledged. Being the king can be one. Founding a city, bringing glory to the kingdom, slaying a legendary beast.”

After that info both conversations resolved into some harmless chatter. All the rest of the info I could extract during the trip is that this kingdom is Kastania and the capital city is also named Kastania.

We kept the curtains closed for obvious anti racism reasons.

The carriage stops and a few moments later someone opens the door. That reveals the guard behind. He looks kind of surprised to see us but quickly gatters himself. With a gruff voice he says, “You have arrived at the castle, I will guide you to your quarters. The king needs some time before he can speak to you. You will get picked up for a second meeting or dinner.”

We all step out the carriage and are in awe of the giant castle. High towers and strong walls while at the same time looking fantastic. The guard does not give us time to orientate. “Could you guys move on? I have other things to do than guide you.”

While we follow the guard I look around me, at the 30 to 40 meter tall white towers the 4 meter tall gate to some windows. All of those should have some beautiful art on them but wolf eyes are not really useful for looking at that kind of thing. But the smells, oh, those are amazing. I can smell metal from the guards equipment, sweat also from the guards, the tons of individual people that just combine into a smell of this location. The stones and food that are made of things I am not familiar with. I smell trees and grass. A few more smells I can not place and it all combines into this nice blend. Amazing, so this is how medieval castles smell. One exception if I should believe Berand is that they do have some waste management. I can barely smell the waste of people.

A light breeze from the direction of the gate, it feels great. The smell it brings does not smell great at all. The slums are apparently in that direction. I can smell the human waste, death, blood, and a few more things I would not want to identify.

Could I appraise the smell?

Now I know for sure that it came from the slums. But not that useful, I wonder if it is only useful to block scrying from other people?

Oh well, we are walking to an entrance about 30 meters to the right of the main entrance and enter it.

Oh boy, what a smell, cleaning soap, combined with old carpets and old wood. I resist the urge to just pinch my nose closed.

[Thomas to all. what a bad smell. I hope our room is a bit better.]

[Filia to all. What do you think I am smelling? But it is not like we can convince them to clean better and if they are going to use perfume everywhere I am going to faint from the smell.]

[Berand to all. I might even faint here, I can not even begin to imagine what extra smells you guys are smelling.]

[Dennis to Berand. Take an orange, burn it in the microwave. Place that in the storage with still air, wait a few days. Dust everything and then put your nose close to the residue to smell it. That is what I am smelling.]

[Berand to Dennis. TIHI. I can understand that you want to faint then where is that smell even coming from?]

[Dennis to Berand. The servants' chambers, the smell originates from the hidden servant passages.]

[Luke to all. At least we do not need to pass the source.]

The guard interrupts us, “we are here. Sebasan is the head maid of this guest wing; she will be the person in charge of your sleep and living accommodations. Any and all questions related to your accommodation go to her.”

We walk up to an older woman in a maid outfit. She has some wrinkles and looks to be about 60 to 70 years old. I am not sure about her real age, seeing as magic is a thing so she might be way older than that. Better not to ask, women and their age, like it is the end of the world. She smells like a grandparent, old yet cosy.

Sebasan politely bows and speaks, “Welcome, I have prepared 4 rooms for you to sleep in.”

Berand is the first to act, “could we all get one big room.” He points at us, “they have some left over trauma from where we came and sleep much better when they are all together.”

Sebasan looks over to us and we all collectively nod. She speaks, “very well. I will lead you to the common room and will prepare a room that you all can use.”