The problem is not having a story is having too much all at once. I like what I saw in a game design video that mentioned that games are interactive media so you need player interaction. Maybe you could let the player fight some soldiers by themselves? Explore 1 or 2 rooms in the castle? You don't need nor should give a lot of freedom but just enough so we can get a brake and play for ourselves.
And I think if you start collecting player input and add a skip button you'll see more than a few players skipping the occasional scene especially if it's not something that is hooking them up, if it looks long, slow, and repetitive, if you can get a TLDR version. I'm not saying it's your case, I'm just saying it's nice to have the option.