[V5.5C3] Speak for Yourself
Translated by Jodas 5.5: Tales of the PastTo the Northeast of the Wedge Tower, in the forest just outside of the Crystal Territory, Helena wandered through the forest alongside her partners Frederik and Rikard.
The three of them were fourteen or fifteen years old. They were all mages of the Extermination Office, but they had only been Apprentices just under a year earlier.
As a result, they had two older mages accompanying them — so that they operated in a group of five.
Yet not long ago, they’d encountered a Monster disguised as a tree and ended up getting separated from their seniors.
Said seniors — Haydn and Dammer — were strong fighters, so they were not worried for them. The problem was themselves.
They’d been walking around for half a day already. The sun was about to set, and they were starting to come to terms with the possibility they may have to spend the night in the woods.
After spending all this time walking though the rough terrain of this forest, Helena’s legs were at their limit. She felt like her feet were starting to swell up.
When Helena was still ‘Little Helena,’ it was normal for her to spend the whole day on her feet during her training at the facility. Nonetheless, walking through the forest was a whole different kind of exhausting.
(…Why do I have to be stuck in a place like this?)
Even though she’d been selected as Saint Helena, she still ended up getting chased out to this backwater province and forced to do nothing but the bloody, smelly work of Monster extermination. Helena tried her hardest to bottle up her arising complaints.
These weren’t good thoughts. Somewhere in her mind, she still unconsciously held onto the thought that a Saint should be respected.
How shallow of her to expect that her happiness would be secured if she became Saint. She wasn’t supposed to be a Saint for the sake of her happiness, Saints stood for the happiness of others.
And yet, due to her misplaced pride, God had given her a test.
“…Yes, this is but a test, granted to me by God.”
When Helena whispered to herself, Frederik turned to her with wide eyes.
“Hey, why don’t you try actually listening for once?”
Now that he mentioned it, she had the feeling that Frederik and Rikard had been talking about something.
After being selected as Saint Helena, Helena’s thoughts tended to focus inwards, but now she slowly lifted her eyelids and looked at Frederik and Rikard.
Frederik, who usually kept an unflappable smile on his face, now made no attempt to hide his anger. He was all out of calm.
“I asked if you wanted to take a break! ……Or do you want me to use flight magic to see if I can spot anyone?”
Rikard responded to the second part.
“I think you shouldn’t. There’s bat Monsters nearby, and if they see you they’ll come at you all at once.”
Rikard was correct.
Flight magic was convenient, but if he flew around like that, he’d just expose their location to the enemy.
While their allies would also have an easier time spotting them after the commotion of being chased around by flying Monsters, that only exposed both yourself and your allies to danger.
Their master, Lowein, would have said “When your ass needs wiping, you damn well better wipe it yourself!” He’d probably punch one of them as he said that.
Out of the three of them, it was Frederik who drew Lowein’s eye the most, and thus it he was on the receiving end of many such punches.
Frederik sighed, then grumbled, tapping his spear on his shoulder.
“If only Röhm were here…”
One of their fellow mages in the Extermination Office, their mentor Anneliese Röhm was a genius woman who’s earned the title ‘the Hundred-Eyes Witch.’
She excelled at detection and reconnaissance magic, as well as deciphering formulas. Finding separated teammates would be a piece of cake for her. However, she was assigned to a different mission at the moment.
Instead, they were left with Haydn and Dammer.
Dammer was a true bastard, so he was probably trying to use them as bait. If only he just went off and died. — Ah, that would be bad, wouldn’t it. She was a Saint, so she shouldn’t be thinking of such terrible things. She shouldn’t wish him dead; she should keep herself to merely wishing he gets his fingers caught in a door, causing him to pass out from the pain.
“What do you think, Helena?”
Rikard turned the conversation over to her, so Helena responded curtly.
“Our sole objective is to solemnly pursue the extermination of Monsters.”
“And yet you haven’t even used that thing once. That Ancient Magical Artifact of yours.”
Frederik muttered under his breath.
Helena stroked the necklace hanging from her neck — Eurydice, the Cackling Foam.
Ever since she used it to drive away those violent men, Helena hadn’t used this Ancient Magical Artifact even once.
“…To wield the power of ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam’ is to bring forth a miracle of God. Should I use it heedlessly, God surely would frown upon me.”
Frederik leveled Helena with a cold gaze.
“What, are you trying to imitate Assistant Headmaster Miriam?”
“……”
“If we die because you refused to use your full abilities, then we’ll have died for nothing.”
Frederik said that because he was from a Monster Hunting Family.
Be it Frederik or Rikard, both of them believed that one should pull no punches and use everything at their disposal to kill Monsters.
It would be unbecoming of her to allow these ignorant plebs who ask why she doesn’t use her full power to anger her. She was a Saint.
Nevertheless, what she truly found irksome was the fact that he mentioned Miriam’s name in the process.
Assistant Headmaster Miriam was once a candidate to become the previous generation’s Saint Helena.
However, after failing the Saint selection, she came to the Wedge Tower and took the name Miriam.
That made Assistant Headmaster Miriam one of the countless Helenas who couldn’t become Saint Helena.
Of course, she must have been looking at Helena with judging eyes, assessing whether she truly deserved to have the name of Saint Helena.
Consequentially, every time she hears Assistant Headmaster Miriam’s name, Helena gets nervous.
“……”
“……”
The atmosphere grew tense between the wordless Helena and seething Frederik.
As that went on, Rikard squatted down and picked up two leaves off of the ground. Were those leaves perhaps evidence of their enemy’s trail?
“Um…”
Rikard held the two leaves over his head.
Then, with a smile, he said:
“It’s a bunny!”
The atmosphere only chilled.
Helena was at a loss. Frederik probably was as well.
Nevertheless, Rikard reassumed his usual serious face, removed the leaves from his head, and folded them in two.
“I’m sorry. Maybe I should have gone with a cat instead.”
“Eh, what? … What were you trying to show us…?”
“How do I begin to describe this…? Could this perhaps be the effects of a mental interference trap?”
It would be best to assume that Rikard’s abnormal behavior was the result of some form of mental interference.
Helena began chanting an incantation for her reconnaissance magic. Meanwhile, Rikard held the folded leaves over his head as he talked.
“I was just trying to lighten the mood a little… By the way, when the ears are half as big, it becomes a cat…”
“Reconnaissance magic has located a signature. To my left, behind us. Distance two-zero-zero.”
“Roger that. Considering the effects of mental interference have already set in, assume it can deploy long-range attacks.”
“Um, I’m not under any mental interference or anything…”
Rikard was a lost cause. He’d already lost his sanity.
Neither of them paid heed to Rikard’s words. Both assumed a battle stance.
Frederik spoke to Helena in a low voice.
“Since it appears that Rikard is out of commission, I’ll be the one to tell you this.”
Rikard mumbled “Um, I’m alright guys…” but the two of them ignored him completely.
Frederik gave Helena a sidelong glance as he readied his spear.
“Don’t speak for God. Speak for yourself.”
In an instant, it felt as if her vision went black.
What in the world was this man saying?
He was speaking to Saint Helena. She was a Saint!
She had to be a good girl because she was a Saint. A Saint had no need for small talk. All she had to do was focus on fulfilling her duty, no more…
“If you keep bottling up your grievances, it’s gonna end up hurting the whole team. Let off some steam every once in a while.”
“The whole team… Let off some steam…”
Thinking only of becoming Saint Helena, she grew up in an environment that suppressed her individuality. Then, just as she became Saint, she was cast away from her home.
Everything she’d kept bottled up started to spout from deep within.
—Pop, a sound came from somewhere in her head.
Then, a branch emerged from between the trees deep in the forest.
There were many varieties of plant Monster, but this one was a tree Monster. They had high regenerative abilities, and their branches would keep coming no matter how many times you cut them.
It may have been possible to slow its regeneration by burning its limbs with fire magic, but none of Helena’s team had an affinity for it. Helena was water, Frederik was wind, and Rikard was earth. Not one of them knew how to use fire magic.
“Let it out… Yes, if letting out steam is for the sake of the team; if my devotion to my team is devotion towards the mission of eradicating Monsters, then God must surely be pleased…”
—She heard laughter.
‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam’ was cackling.
Ah, most certainly, she was under attack my a monster with mental interference just as Rikard was. If she wasn’t, there was no way she’d feel so joyous.
“Hehe, Ahaha…”
“KYAHAHAHA!!”
For the first time since coming to the Wedge Tower, Helena laughed.
She covered her cheeks with her pale, delicate hands.
Beneath her fingers, the corners of her mouth lifted up, her eyes narrowed, and her brows knitted closer — She made a blissful, sneering smile.
“Then, allow me to ‘let of some steam,’ as you say… Yes, it may be an unsightly, crass act of me to take out my anger in such a manner. After all, I am Saint Helena.”
“KYAHAHAHAHA!!”
“I am so utterly sad. I’m not angry in the slightest, only saddened. After all, I’m stuck here in this horrid forest surrounded by this awful men. Ah, such horrible, inconsiderate, brute, inelegant, worthless, hopeless, good for nothing…. Ah….”
All of her feelings built up to one word.
It was a true, un-coerced feeling that had always rested within Helena.
“… How pitiable it is to be me.”
Helena was a Saint. It would be improper for anyone to take pity on her.
Throughout the whole world, the only one who could offer any pity to Helena was Helena herself.
And by taking pity on herself, it felt as if a shackle had come off.
“I’m sorry for holding it in all this time, Eurydice… Come, raise your voice to your heart’s content…!”
Helena’s slender fingertips brushed against her necklace.
Then, the corners of her mouth slowly lifted.
“Laugh at the world in my stead!”
“DIEDIEDIEDIE! KYAAAAAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”
Bubbles began to float up around Helena. Each one followed Helena’s subconscious commands.
“Explode.”