Snow Burial: Secret Love Poems from Winter

Karlan's carriage returned safely to Neverwinter.The escorting Baiwan soldiers were also curious about his secret operations to cover up his identity, but the silence of Karlan himself and several of his followers made them quickly give up asking questions and carry out the direct orders from Snow Lion Castle .

Stahl rushed back from the Western Front almost the same day Karlan arrived at Snow Lion Castle.

The burly Lord Baiwan took off his armor, and there were still bloodstains on his skirt and cuffs—of course, the blood did not belong to him.Star ignored the attendants who tried to talk to him along the way, walked up the spiral staircase in the center of Snow Lion Castle, and pushed open the door of Karlan's bedroom.

There was no one else in the house.And his young nephew was sitting at the table with his back to him, seeming to be writing something.Karlan was only wearing a light underwear, and a bruise from the rope was exposed under the sleeve.The braziers placed at the four corners of the room dispelled the cold of the severe winter, but they did not melt the defense line built in the heart of each member of the Snow Lion family.

Stahl closed the door, not in his usual style.Hearing the movement behind him, Karlan put down his pen, and quietly stuffed the parchment roll full of common language characters into the pile of books.

"You are back, Uncle." He stood up, his eyes lowered, but the emotion that flashed in his eyes was not the obedience and security that Starr thought.

Seeing the wound on Karlan's face, Star frowned.He put aside the gloves he had taken off, and took a few steps closer to Karlan. "They touched you?"

The hand that held the sword for many years was covered with thick calluses. When Karlan brushed against the corner of his mouth, the latter's eyes obviously froze, but in the end he still didn't block Starr's movement.

Karlan leaned against the table, his hands unconsciously gripping the hard edge of the corner.He's used to Star being too intimate with him, but that doesn't mean he likes it.

"At first they didn't know my identity, and thought we were just lost hunters." He deliberately met Sdar's concerned eyes, and manipulated his expression to make himself look the same as Sdar expected—compared to several sons, Stahl seems to like Karlan more, thinking that he has more outstanding talents and a decisive yet alert style.Although he would not let Karlan inherit his position as the lord, he would like to see this young nephew as his right-hand man, dedicating everything to the Baiwan collar and his own ambitions.

"I'll make them pay the price, Karlan." Starr whispered, his gloomy expression played into Karlan's hands in a sense.

But Karlan didn't show any emotions beyond Starr's expectation.He just nodded slightly "appropriately", his light-colored eyelashes formed an ambiguous arc under the firelight, and the shadow cast by his facial features was surprisingly similar to his mother.

Stahl was powerless against this.

Five years have passed.The fire and snow in Neverwinter City still echo each other, and the fog and moon in the Watching Tower are still picturesque.The battle on the western front of Baiwan Territory ended in a loss for both sides, and the northern part of Juhu Territory returned to a rare calm.

Mora's words were also much bolder than at the time.He once teased Norlins with a smile, saying that the Baiwan nobles who suddenly appeared on the northern border in the early spring of that year actually made the wandering lords of the Great Lake Territory a lot more concerned.

Norlins laughed it off.After all, what Mora said was also true: after that incident, Norlins did not find another lover, and his relatives, friends and ministers couldn't help being surprised by this.The reason is that Norlins himself can only express a vague feeling-the impression of Karland is so deep on him that whenever he tries to find a new one from the handsome or gorgeous strange faces Happiness, before the physical reaction appeared, what rushed into his brain was another cold and delicate face.

Norlins almost forgot when the last armistice treaty with the White Bay Territory was signed, but he still remembered the painting five years ago, the forest after the snow, Karlan's pale skin and the time when he left. gloomy eyes.

But before the soldiers put down their weapons and returned to their hometowns, three months after the peace treaty between Baiwan Territory and Juhu Territory expired, war broke out again.Driven by feuds, fighting instincts, and the urgent needs brought about by famine years, the fierce and powerful Baiwan army marched southward, heavy chariots broke through the border, and the shouts of the ancient imperial language resounded across the northern part of the Great Lake Territory.

Unlike his innate political skills and easy handling of affairs, Norlins' military talent can be said to be his personal shortcoming.Rather than strategizing and controlling the situation of the battle, it may be more suitable for this young and strong lord to charge horses and swords and charge into battle.On the one hand, several veterans of the Juhu leader have passed away one after another, and the new military talents are still inexperienced. The relative peace has exhausted the soldiers' will to fight. The defeat did not go beyond Norlins' expectations.

It's just that Norlins never expected that one of the generals who led the Baiwan army straight in was Karlan, whom he had been thinking about for five years.

Just as Karlan and his entourage were tied hands behind their backs and knelt down on the ground five years ago, this time, it was Norlins himself, the lord of the lake, who was disarmed, robbed of his scepter, and imprisoned.

At the end of autumn, the bank of the huge lake is filled with the smell of overripe wild fruits, mixed with the smell of blood and gunpowder smoke surging in the forest battlefield.Forty miles to the south is the Star Watching Tower standing on the outskirts of the capital. In terms of its strategic significance, the captured Star Watching Tower owner is obviously higher than the Star Watching Tower itself.

Norlins, who was dressed in military uniform, was tied up by Baiwan soldiers, his knees were grinding against the hard stones on the ground, and the sweat that had smothered in his helmet earlier was stained with smoke, dust and mud, forming a muddy trail and dripping into his collar .Mora, who was traveling with him, was also tied aside. His thin body, which was incompatible with the battlefield, obviously lacked the capital to resist. The panic on his face naturally became a pastime for the Baiwan soldiers.

Norlins knelt on the ground panting, days of intense fighting made him drowsy, until a series of hoofbeats from far to near knocked his consciousness.

Karlan paced up and down on a white horse.Norlins looked up.

The young aristocrat of the snow lion lineage still had the same indifferent expression, with cold eyes that could not see the bottom at a glance.He had already taken off his heavy iron armor, and he was wearing a brown hunting suit that was very similar to that of five years ago. The blood of the soldiers from the Giant Lake collar soaked Karlan's cuffs, and the lion head pendant hanging on his chest was divided into pieces. Outwardly ferocious.

Norlins looked up at him in a daze, and it took a long time to squeeze out a few self-deprecating smiles from his throat.

Karlan looked down at his own prisoners, overlooking the "scum of the Great Lakes" who had brought him pain and humiliation, his eyes filled with hatred, sorrow, and ecstasy of unspeakable revenge.

He drew his sword from its sheath, and the cold edge reached Norlins' neck.

"Any last words?" Karlan asked blankly.

Norlins did not suspect that Karlan would kill him at any time - Karlan had sufficient reasons and conditions for doing so.After all, even if he died by his sword, Norlins knew it was just karma, and he was just to blame.

Mo La on the side opened his eyes wide, and the unprecedented fear made him almost speechless: "No—"

However, neither Karlan nor Norlins glanced at him.Karlan still held the heavy iron sword firmly in his hand. The blade was covered with scratches from the blows, and the dried blood had not been wiped away; Norlins' Adam's apple slipped, and the muddy sweat fell into the dry soil.

Norlins still didn't say a word, just stared into Karlan's eyes silently, as if staring at a peerless painting.

At this moment, as long as Karlan sent the blade forward a few points, Norlins' throat would be filled with blood.Maybe Mora will scream in despair, maybe the captured Huhuling soldiers will lose the last light in their eyes.

Callan wondered if he was really waiting for a decent answer from Norlins.The tip of the iron sword had pierced the skin of Norlins' neck, and a little blood and sweat seeped into his messy skirt.

To everyone's surprise, Norlins didn't say a word, but slowly lowered his head and kissed the saber in Karlan's hand.