"Fine, start the lecture already," Alvira said as she sat on a small cupboard.
The rest of the party gathered around, sitting in comfortable positions around the room, with most of them deciding to just sit on the floor, Merlin included.
As Merlin opened the book, a donation notification popped up in front of him.
「"Here_4_a_good_time" has gifted 1337 tokens with the message: "Wooo! Storytime!"」
Merlin waved the notification away before flipping the pages and briefly skimming the earliest diary entries. The first part of the diary was completely unrelated to the Necropolis, mostly detailing the happenings of the couple's little apothecary, discovering new ingredients on the market and new effects, and a couple of details relating to their interactions with customers.
"Well, what does it say?" Alvira asked.
"I haven't found any entries relating to the Necropolis yet, be patient," Merlin said as he flipped to the next page.
The next entry was focused on the young daughter of one of the neighbors who lived across the street. It seemed as though the little girl frequented the couple's apothecary with toothaches due to her love for sugary treats.
The next couple of pages mentioned various interactions between the young girl and the diary owner's wife, such as the time when she had worked on developing a sugar-free alternative sweet for the young girl.
An entire page was dedicated to the time the young girl had walked in just to show off her new toy, some sort of bipedal bear with oddly long ears, and the wife had asked her what its name was. It described how the two worked together for fifteen minutes to come up with a name, it seemed the girl was happy with the wife's suggestion of Cinnabun. She explained that night that it was named after the girl's favourite sweet, and also referenced the colour of the teddy bear's fur, and the odd bunny-like ears.
According to the following diary entry, that same night the wife expressed her desire to have a child of her own.
"So... Anything else?" Alvira asked.
"The young girl we saw in the market..." Merlin muttered.
"The zombie girl with the teddy bear?" Snowbunny asked.
"Yeah, her teddy bear is called Cinnabun," Merlin responded.
The group went silent for a moment, and then Alvira spoke up once more.
"You read for that long, for the name of a zombie's teddy bear..." Alvira muttered.
"I still haven't gotten to the Necropolis entries," Merlin said.
"Then skip to it!" Alvira expressed her irritation.
Merlin quickly skimmed through the next couple of pages, where it was confirmed that they had both agreed to finally have a child.
After flipping through several more pages he finally found a page related to the Necropolis, and at this point, he began reading it out loud.
He described how the city had started locking down after reports of a large undead army were approaching, residents were informed that the city would be on high alert and that the city guards and local knights would protect them. But before the fighting had started, a large portion of the nobility living in the city centre had moved out of the city temporarily for their own safety.
Once the fighting had started, tensions within the city were high, but a high degree of faith was placed in the city's defences. Life went on as usual for the next few days, with news of the city guards being slowly pushed back by the undead force, which increased the city folk's unease.
Speaking with their customers every day had caused a great deal of concern within the apothecary couple, they began speaking about moving to Caphyae or Macedonia, but the wife was in the last stages of pregnancy and the trip would be rough on her, with the risk of having to give birth on the road.
Alongside the risk of giving birth, the thought of abandoning their customers and their home was a difficult choice for them both, they decided against moving, noting that the risk was much too high now and they could only wait out the attack and hope reinforcements arrive in time.
A curfew was eventually placed on the civilians, and they were instructed to stay within their homes when possible.
The group all had darkening expressions as Merlin continued to read the diary's pages.
News of the city's defence breaking had spread within the city, causing a large degree of panic amongst the citizens. The city officials implored everyone to stay within their homes, noting that the breach had been contained and that the undead army had been pushed back out of the city, but several families refused to stick around and decided to flee the city before it was overrun.
Days went by, with no news from the western region of the city, or the defence efforts, spreading to the eastern region, which caused a great deal of discomfort to those living in fear.
Until one day, news finally broke, the city guard had been destroyed, and even the warriors sent from Sparta had been overwhelmed by the undead force. The final order from the city officials was to defend your home and wait for reinforcements from the temple, lock the doors and board up as much of your residence as you could.
The next several entries of the diary covered the happenings of the days that followed, families all locked themselves in their own homes, utilising what little supplies they may have had stored up while waiting for reinforcements that did not come.
The husband recounted the terror he felt as he watched a horde of undead march down the once lively street outside of his home. He constantly worried about what would happen if the undead stormed into his house, although he did his best to seal it up, he was still unsatisfied with his own safety, and the safety of his wife and soon-to-be newborn child.
"Oh god, what a terrifying situation..." Snowbunny muttered, "Being locked in your house, helpless as you're surrounded by monsters, and where one wrong move would have your house broken into, and your family eaten alive..."
The rest of the group showcased a range of emotions after hearing several pages of the diary's entries, but alternatively, the stream seemed to be enjoying the storytime.
"Right, so I assume we're close to what happened to the couple... Continue." Alvira spoke up, it seemed even she, who previously showed no emotion at the happenings of the game up until this point had become somewhat invested in the couple's story.
