Prince Helmus and Prince Marselus originally came from Betun in West Timor.

When the Japanese occupied East Timor and Suai in particular, no one in Suai could speak Melayu (Bahasa Indonesia). So Don Dinis and King Klau called Prince Helmus and Prince Marselus to replace them in Suai.

.After about one and half years of the Japanese occupation, the Japanese asked Prince Helmus and Prince Marselus to provide them with women from Suai to work as comfort women (Nona Manis) for the Japanese troops.

Prince Helmus and Prince Marselus said that in Betun in West Timor, where they came from, they wouldn’t provide the Japanese with comfort women and they wouldn’t do it in Suai either, because the women of Suai are not Kobalima women (prostitutes).

Soon after their refusal to help the Japanese with their request, Prince Helmus held out his tongue in front of the mirror, and saw it was unusually red. He took this to be a sign, and predicted they would be killed .

A few weeks later they discovered their fellow East Timorese Kings, Don Dinis and King Bere Loek had betrayed them and reported their refusal to the Japanese commander in Maugel – Bobonaro. They were taken to Bobonaro where they were tied up and hung from the Hali Tree before they were shot by the Japanese troops.

Prince Helmus and Prince Marselus never fought against the Japanese. The great men died because they defended Suai women from sex slavery.

They did the right thing defending the value and dignity of Suai women as a human beings on earth.