[V5.5C1] Little Helena
Translated by Jodas 5.5: Tales of the PastHelena never knew what her parents looked like. From her earliest memories, she’d been living in a facility run by the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy, surrounded by girls her age.
All of the kids in this facility were given the name Helena.
As a result, they all referred to each other with names like ‘Freckles Helena’ or ‘Blonde Helena.’
Her nickname was ‘Little Helena.’ She was the smallest of the kids at the facility.
All of the Helena’s lived lives like junior nuns and they studied magecraft from an early age.
Their training at the facility was brutal.
There were days where, in the name of increasing their mana reserves, they’d be brought out to a place with high mana density and forced to practice magecraft until their mana completely ran out.
As a consequence, it was not unusual for some of the kids to fall ill and leave the facility.
— All for the sake of becoming Saint Helena.
Out of the countless Helenas, only one of them would be chosen by the Ancient Magical Artifact ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam’ and become Saint Helena.
It was for that reason alone that the Helenas were gathered there.
For ages, it had been decreed that Saint Helena would be the wielder of ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam.’
According to all the adults, ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam’ wouldn’t accept any wielder aside from the most pious, chaste, and pure of them all.
Thus, the Helenas spent nearly every waking hour outside of their training and daily chores in prayer.
Giving thanks to God, they prayed for the happiness of all, and to preserve their ever-spotless hearts.
……In reality, no one knew what sort of human the Ancient Magical Artifact would select.
Simply, since the Church wanted to gather the support of the people, it was convenient to them for the wielder of the Ancient Magical Artifact to be seen as a talented and attractive Saint.
To that end, they raised many children and had ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam’ choose its user from among them.
Ignorant to the whims of those adults, the girls continued their harsh training regimen so that they may become the Saint.
Among a horde of children raised for the same purpose with the same name, and with strict limits being placed on their private lifestyles, it was only natural for them to mistake the quality of one’s grades for personality.
Amidst the talented Helenas, Little Helena didn’t have the talent to be considered unique, so she decided to solicit praise and distinction by assuming the role of the perfect child instead.
She would always volunteer to do the difficult work, and never spoke ill of another person. Little Helena was a good girl who never made a fuss.
To put it differently: being a good girl was Little Helena’s ‘personality.’
She had no choice — she didn’t have any special talents to distinguish herself by.
(That’s why I had to be the perfect child. If I couldn’t, I would be worthless. It would feel like the whole world had cursed me…)
Thus, the days and months passed by, until the previous Helena passed away when Little Helena was thirteen.
Some Ancient Magical Artifacts couldn’t find a new wielder until their previous wielder had died. Others were much more liberal with their wielders. ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam,’ was the former sort.
Therefore, when Saint Helena, who was contracted to it, died; the race began to select the next Saint Helena.
To be precise, Ancient Magical Artifacts were not merely magical devices made in the ancient era. They were magical devices made with the techniques of the ancient era.
But since those techniques have been lost to time, there was no way to recreate them in the modern day.
The greatest differences between Ancient Magical Artifacts and modern magical devices are the overwhelming power of Ancient Magical Artifacts, and the fact that they have a will of their own.
Obviously, ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam’ had such a will… but the presence of that will was extremely faint, and the Saints Helena throughout history have only reported hearing a faint whispering from ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam.’
At the selection ceremony, the moment Little Helena touched ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam,’ she heard a barely audible voice.
As if she was hearing it through a pane of water, she could have sworn she heard someone laughing.
At the same time, the jewels on the necklace under her fingers let off a glow.
‘Ooh,’ the adults in the room gasped.
“Congratulations, Saint Helena. ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam’ has chosen you.”
An important adult said that as they lifted the necklace made of countless water-colored beads beautifully arranged, then clasped it around Little Helena’s neck.
At that point, a tiny mark appeared on Helena’s chest. This water-colored symbol was the mark of her contract with the Ancient Magical Artifact.
“May God give His blessings on the birth of a new Saint! Now go forth without conceit and use your power for the benefit of the people!”
The moment she was bestowed with the title of Saint, Little Helena was defined by a trait other than being a good kid for the first time in her life.
From here on, she would work her hardest as a Saint of the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy for the sake of the people.
She’d be pure, chaste, and pious.
Saint Helena’s heart filled with joy and pride.
(…Ah, how did things end up like this?)
A few weeks after being appointed as Saint, Helena found herself being dragged into a dirty alley with her mouth covered.
Someone had approached her, saying the Archbishop was visiting, and they needed to buy flowers to decorate for the occasion.
Someone else piped up that the Archbishop would surely be pleased if the flowers were personally chosen by the Saint.
Whoever it was that said ‘Saint Helena, if you’re going out, I recommend you take this path’ disappeared all of a sudden, to be replaced by…
—Ah, these are the Helenas who couldn’t become Saint.
She ended up going along with their invitation and innocently stepped outside, only to find herself dragged into this back alley.
Filthy men pinned Helena down to the ground, laughing lecherously.
If these men soiled her, it would mean she was no longer qualified to be Saint.
The Helenas who were unable to become Saint knew that very well.
…Yes, they should have known.
That once it formed a contract, the Ancient Magical Artifact ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam’ could not be contracted to a different person until its previous user died.
And that, should Saint Helena be deemed unsuitable, she would be killed to dispose of her.
Knowing all that, they chose to subject her to these violent men.
(Ah… I can’t… I can’t hate them… I must love my neighbor. God has decreed that the only ones we should hate are the Monsters who seek to tempt man to fall into sin.)
She was Saint Helena. She had to be pure of heart.
She should never be allowed to allow hate to stain her heart… She should never allow it…
(But I hate these men. I hate those girls who lured me into this trap.)
The true intentions she suppressed behind the face of a good girl wrapped around her neck like a snake.
Crude words from the Helenas who couldn’t become Saint rang in the back of her ears.
—Why Little Helena, of all people?
—She’s just some goody-two-shoes.
—She’s not fit to be Saint.
She shouldn’t allow herself to be angry. She tried to admonish herself, but her true thoughts remained unchanged.
‘You, who say such foul things behind someone’s back, are not any more fit to be Saint than I am.’
(I hate them, I hate them, I hate them… No, I can’t hate. I can’t.)
The men tore through Helena’s clothing. Lecherous laughter dripped from their mouths.
Unprompted, a verse from the holy texts surfaced in her mind.
“Hostility is the most intimate of medicines.”
A powerful medicine seeped out of her chest. That medicine — hostility — stained the inside of her body black in the blink of an eye.
She shouldn’t be doing this. She had to be a good girl.
That was the only thing that defined Little Helena.
(Hate, hate, hate, hate — Accept your judgement!)
The moment a filthy hand brushed against her skin, she heard the sound of something popping deep within her ears.
“KYAHAHAHAHA, KYAHAHAHAHA!!”
A shrill cackling voice resounded from the base of her neck.
She could always, always hear this voice. Only, it had usually been indistinct, as if dampened by a pane of water.
But now, she could hear it clearly. The laughing — no, the cackling. The scoffing.
“DIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE! ALL OF YOU, DIE! YOU FOOLS! YOU PIECES OF SHIT! YOU WORTHLESS TRASH!”
The shrill voice rang in her ears, deafening her to all but the laughter. How heinous and cacophonous it was.
And yet… Ahh, and yet…
“…Hehe.”
Helena couldn’t stop herself from laughing as well.
After all, that voice spoke for the feelings in her own heart.
“KYAHAHAHA!”
“…Hehehe, Ahaha.”
“KYA, HA, HA, HA!! EXPLODE! EXPLODE!!”
Bubbles emerged, floating into the air and enveloping the men.
Even the screams and pleas for mercy from the men sounded dampened and garbled to her ears.
Little Helena was never truly a good girl.
Lacking a unique trait of her own, she simply chose the easiest trait that was available to her — she chose to act as a perfect child.
Regardless, Helena herself never changed.
She assigned herself the mission of becoming a perfect child in the oppressive world she lived in. All so she could become the Saint. That was her only reason for living. She knew of her ugly instincts the whole time, so how could she expect to change them now?
Helena slowly stood up, with a painful smile on her lips. After all, she was a Saint. It was only proper for her to weep for the carnage that was about to come.
Being the Saint was her identity now. It was her value.
“It’s so sad… I’m so sad, you know?”
“DIEDIEDIEDIE! ALL OF YOU, DIE!!”
The Saint shed a tear and clasped her hands in prayer.
—Then, the bubbles exploded.
‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam’ had power proportional to the mana of the object enveloped in its bubbles.
All of the men who attacked Helena were ordinary civilians with low mana reserves, so they made it out with their lives.
…That said, they suffered broken bones all over their body. Some of them would never be able to walk again.
Saint Helena was taken to a holding cell, and the church leaders debated what to do with her next.
It would be best for them to strip the title of Saint from her and set up a new Saint Helena. That would resolve the situation neatly… but the source of the problem, Saint Helena herself, had already awakened ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam.’
“This is entirely unprecedented.”
The priest responsible for Saint Helena’s education spoke with a grim face, and the people around nodded.
“To begin with, it’s said that ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam’ is not considered particularly strong compared to other Ancient Magical Artifacts… That said, the mere fact that it is a still-existing Ancient Magical Artifact gives it more than enough value.”
So long as Ancient Magical Artifacts had a ritual purpose, the influence of the Church could be maintained.
Throughout history, Saints Helena have usually been able to produce five or six bubbles from ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam’ at any one time. Even the most talented among them couldn’t produce ten, and they would be hard pressed to have them float any farther than visual range. However, its ritual value was more then enough to keep it around.
On the other hand, the current Saint’s awakened ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam’ could produce and control almost a hundred bubbles at once. Not to mention her range, which was more than three times her predecessors.
“This is sufficient power to be used as a weapon.”
“But it can’t be used in urban environments. It’s too powerful. Civilians would be caught up in the blasts.”
“…Even if we were to use it against an opposing organization, it would leave too bad of an impression.”
Indeed, the problem that gave the leaders a headache more than anything else was Eurydice’s personality.
This was an Ancient Magical Artifact with a shrill laughing voice and a habit of spouting violent and crude language.
Would worshippers really flock to a Saint that used such a thing as a weapon? Even without that, it would be nice if she could say a psalm or two every once in a while.
It wouldn’t be a simple task to assassinate the current Saint Helena either. If she used ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam,’ they would suffer immense casualties.
Thus, the church leaders found themselves divided.
Saint Helena, the awakened ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam,’ and its personality, were all problems.
But it would be a waste not to put their formidable power to use.
That lead them to an idea:
‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam’ couldn’t be used in urban areas. It was an Ancient Magical Artifact capable of unleashing tremendous power, particularly in battles against Monsters. In that case, they could try lending it to the Wedge Tower, which regularly fought Monsters, and put that organization in their debt.
That annoying laughing and horrid personality wouldn’t be as much of a problem if it was spent fighting Monsters in a backwater on the edge of the Empire.
The Ras Belsch Orthodoxy had a history of interfering in politics by designating the wielders of of Ancient Magical Artifacts as their Saints.
During the war over fifty years ago, the Silver Saint wielded the ‘Mirror of Bern’ to great effect. She was one such case.
The Church insisted to the people that it was a Saint of the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy who led the Empire to victory, inspiring more donations.
This time, by entrusting ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam’ and Saint Helena to the Wedge Tower, they aimed to increase their influence over the Wedge Tower.
That was why Saint Helena was sent to the Wedge Tower.