The Lonely City

A mysterious legend was once told in a distant northern kingdom. They say there is a forest outside the city, cold and damp all year round, where ancient trees blot out the sky and mist swirls everywhere. No one who enters ever comes back alive... Once, a soldier managed to escape by sheer luck. Afterward, he went mad. According to him, a lone city stood deep in the forest, where the perfectly preserved corpse of a man lay. Every night at midnight, he would wake... They say the man was cruel and bloodthirsty, with countless lives on his hands, yet possessed a cold, perfect face, like a king who had emerged from hell... They say he knew ancient, mysterious magic and was immortal, not a human being of this world, but a creature from ancient times, unlike anything ever seen... They say he was heartless and desireless, with a heart of steel, and knew nothing of love... Gradually, people stopped venturing there. Then, many years later, a twenty-year-old girl accidentally wandered into the place, and the astonishing past slowly began to come to light... This is a fantasy romance combining power, conspiracy, curses, and magic. Hatred springs from love, hatred springs from beauty, Snow falls in soft drifts, ink burns dark and bright; Hatred springs from obsession, hatred springs from love, A dream of fleeting life, this love will know no regret. Hatred springs from the heart, hatred springs from hurt; Tenderness in every inch, heartbreak in every tune; Hatred springs from resentment, hatred springs from curses, If you cannot have what you long for, why not destroy it?