BBYW Vol. 2 Chapter 36 (WN)
Chapter 36 – A Traitor’s Fate
“H-H-EEEEK! Y-You damned fools!! As if I could die in a place like this!!”
In the frenzied battlefield, after the Maxwell cavalry’s entrance, a shadow was scurrying away like a rat.
“How dare you do this to me, Dyngir Maxwell…!! Rest assured, I’m going to have your head on a platter…!!”
The crazed shrieking was produced by Lars Baal’ former attendant in the First Imperial Army — Snowe Halphas.
After his collusion with Grett Baal was discovered, he had been captured, restrained, and locked in a corner of the camp. His pale white body was marked purple by the ropes and the traces of torture at the hands of his former companions.
Taking advantage of the confusion caused by the battle, Snowe managed to escape. He ripped bloodied clothes from the corpses and used them to camouflage himself, sometimes playing dead, in order to evade the Maxwell forces’ attention.
“No, I can’t die here!! I’m going to destroy House Maxwell and surpass my brother! I can’t die for a worthless man like that Lars!!”
Snowe, seething words of poison from his mouth, was trying to get away from the battlefield as quickly as possible. The face of the former finest mind of the First Imperial Army was now twisted by hatred and paranoia.
“Yes…yes, it’s not over yet…! Once I return to the empire, I can…! I’ll serve Cerros Baal, use my intelligence to make him emperor…no no, even better, I could gather all those who resent the empire, create a rebellious force and found a new country…! Haha, yes, and I’ll be king…!”
Snowe grinned ecstatically while lost in absurd delusions. He dragged his feet away from the battlefield, the cries and clashing of weapons fainter and fainter in his ears. Thinking he was out of danger, Snowe smiled.
“I did it, I’m saved…! Serves you right, Lars Baal, you hopeless fool!! As if someone like you could kill me!! I will return to the empire, while Maxwell crushes you like the bug you are!! Hyahahaha!! Serves you riiiight!!”
Snowe cackled as if he had lost all reason.
Lars Baal had probably fallen to the Maxwell knights by this time. The man who dared treat him like a criminal was dead, while he was free and alive. Such a reversal of fates filled Snowe with joy.
“Hyahyahya!! HYAHAAHA! Hya…hah?”
A damp sound was heard from Snowe’s chest. Terrified, he looked down — and found a piece of edged metal poking out. A red stain was gradually growing larger. He realized the lukewarm fresh blood was his own, and screamed.
“Ah…ah…AAAAHHHHH!!”
“Hm? Oh, you’re still alive?”
It was a woman’s perplexed voice. Snowe fearfully turned around and found a silver-haired maiden.
“I thought I found a walking corpse, so I decided I had to do the merciful thing and send them to the afterlife…but you’re just a survivor, aren’t you. To point a blade at someone whose lost all will to fight is a warrior’s shame…that was careless of me.”
“Y-You…are…”
Snowe had seen the woman before: she was Shaza Salazar, former member of the Imperial Knights and daughter of the current captain.
With a sigh, Shana pulled her lance out of Snowe’s body.
“Ghah…!”
“Well, no use crying over spilt milk. I’ll pray for you, so forgive me, all right?”
“What…are you…”
Blood gushed from Snowe’s mouth.
(NO!! I still haven’t surpassed my brother!! I haven’t avenged him!! I can’t die in a place like this…!)
“N…no…I don’t want to…die…”
“Hmm, well, that’s a problem. The battlefield is the graveyard of those who do not want to die, though, as they say. Just imagine that you’ve bumped into a grim reaper and give up.”
“No…I can’t…”
Tears welled at Snowe’s eyes. Ambition, revenge, everything vanished like mist, as life abandoned the body of the young “Wise General”.
After offering a silent prayer for Snowe, Shana left to continue her search of the battlefield.
“This…can’t…why did I…”
(If it was going to be like this…I shouldn’t have betrayed them in the first place…!)
Snowe Halphas drew his last breath, his mind occupied by regrets.
Shana, her back turned towards him, cocked her head.
“I wonder who that was, anyway. He kind of acted like he knew me…hmm, can’t remember.”
Shana had taken the life of the mastermind behind the assassination of Rossellia Baal, her former master — without knowing.
Thus fell Snowe Halphas, the historic traitor who sparked the fall of the Baal Empire.