Meanwhile, over at Katherine's perspective...
As she walked down the road with Flamebeard, the two soon arrived at a small wooden house.
"The king has been ill for the past few days. Sorry if he——"
"It's okay. I don't actually need to see the king unless he wants to see me... I'm actually here to ask a question."
"I'll try my best to answer it, Duchess Reid."
The two stopped right at the doorway, not going inside as Flamebeard waited for Katherine's question.
"Is the rumor about a dragon roaming nearby true?"
Flamebeard fell into silence as he looked to the side before turning over to Katherine.
"That rumor is obviously false. Why would a dragon go towards here out of all places?
Whoever spreads those rumors is either delusional or has another motive. But there was a sighting of a relatively big monster."
"Big monster?"
"Yeah. A big monster that had been evading our search... It has furs, so it's definitely not a dragon."
Katherine nodded in acknowledgment, as it has been well-known that all dragons only have scales.
"Thank you for answering my question... Tell the king that I wish for his speedy recovery."
"Will do."
As Katherine turned around and started heading back, Flamebeard suddenly yelled.
"Wait! Duchess Reid, is your family giving up on revenge? After all those years of enduring?"
"Revenge? We gave that up a long time ago."
Katherine answered as she continued heading forward, showing no signs of turning back to explain any further.
---
When the five of them finally exited the church, Meiya was the most stunned.
She couldn't believe how beautiful the inside was.
The details of the picture had blown her mind, and the art style was completely different from what she had seen before.
It had zero signs of a realistic appearance compared to the nearby statues that tried to mimic a dwarf's appearance.
"What kind of art styles are these paintings?" Sophia asked curiously, as she was also intrigued by them.
"It's called Valoo. It's an art technique that had been passed down for millenniums."
As the knight answered, they quickly noticed Katherine walking towards them in the distance.
"Thank you for the tour. We'd like to leave now."
The knight hesitated for a second but agreed to it as he began leading the six of them toward the castle exit. Stay tuned with mvl
"We're leaving already?" Mary curiously asked as she felt there were still a lot of things to explore in the castle.
"You guys look so tired. You all need a nap."
Katherine's stern voice made all three of the kids fall into silence. They could tell she was just making an excuse to leave.
After walking for a bit, they finally arrived at the main entrance.
"Thank you for the tour." Meiya and Luqing both bowed down a little in gratitude.
"No problem."
As Alex opened the door, Katherine was sitting on a chair, writing something on a piece of paper.
"Hey Alex, you need something?"
"Mom, do you know where is the bathroom?"
"It's just downstairs."
Alex quickly headed downstairs, going all the way to the 1st floor before noticing there was not a single bathroom sign.
"You looking for something?" The young waitress asked after noticing Alex standing there for a solid minute.
"Can I ask where is the bathroom?"
"It's down the hall. You don't need to take these stairs to get there... Let me bring you there."
Alex followed the young waitress past the counter, and they soon entered the kitchen.
"Hey Alice, who's this boy?" A man wearing a chef hat curiously asked.
"Just a customer looking for the bathroom."
As they walked past the kitchen, they finally arrived at two bathroom signs on both sides, with an upright staircase in the middle.
"You can take this stair to head back to your room. This is just the end side of the 2nd floor hallway."
Alex nodded as he quickly realized Katherine meant this staircase earlier, not the one that they came from.
"Thank you."
As Alex headed to the men's bathroom, he was surprised to see two dwarfs standing at the sink.
One of them was clearly dizzy, while the other was supporting him from falling onto his face.
"I feel so bad——Ugh."
Seeing the young dwarf throwing up, Alex turned his attention to walk past it and arrived at the urinal.
After taking care of business, Alex headed back to the sink to wash his hands.
"You got to have a stronger belly if you don't want to get laughed at." The older dwarf lectured as the young dwarf threw up again.
"Is he okay?"
Alex worryingly asked as he could feel the young dwarf throwing up his stomach at this point.
"He's fine. He just forgot to eat before drinking. Don't worry about him."
Alex nodded as he finished washing his hands. He then left the bathroom and went upstairs to his room.
Sitting down in the seat, he was a little bored with nothing much to do.
After sitting for a bit, he decided to close his eyes and started meditating.
Soon, time began to fly by as he made little progress towards mage level 2, but it was still progress nonetheless.
"Alex, you want to eat dinner?" Sophia's voice appeared outside the door.
"Sure. Just give me a minute."
With his shoes back on, Alex headed out into the hallway before following Sophia downstairs to the 1st floor.
To his surprise, almost the entire inn was full, with the only table remaining being the one that they sat on earlier.
Katherine and the rest of the group were already sitting at the table, and food was already being served.
"Here."
As Alex sat down next to Mary, the noises got exponentially louder and louder until he started to get a little annoyed by it.
It was almost as if being quiet or considerate of others was not in their vocabulary whatsoever.