In a circular chamber with a large bed, Camille was watching silently at Simon's body while she was healing his wounds, she was currently in one of her human forms, as it would be hard to calm the little girl if she were to appear in her original body.
This would usually annoy her and probably wouldn't care if she were to scare the girl, but she saw the state of mind the little girl had when she was being chased. Whatever happened to her probably was enough, so she didn't want to add more burden to her poor mind.
Her only concern right now was the state of Simon's body, as it was the first time that his carelessness paid a heavy price on him. If she weren't to appear in the right moment, he would have probably die at that moment and worse of all, he wouldn't have saved the girl.
He was lucky enough to have her watching over him but if it weren't the case, a dogs death would have waited to him.
This reinforced her thoughts that he would be probably bullied or killed if he were to go to a human town. Knowing how cruel humans and other creatures could be, she didn't doubt for a moment that what happened today, would repeat outside. His foolishness would only done more bad than good, she was trying to think a way to make him able to gain strength.
With a troubled look she took off her hand from his body as she regenerate him completely. He was really lucky, just a few seconds more and the wound on his head would have killed him. His skull was almost crushed due to the sheer force behind those men kicks, while his jaw was completely destroyed.
His ribcages, arms, back, chest and shoulders bones were pulverized. What was left before she healed him was mangled flesh that was covering the girl. His organs were crushed and his lungs were perforated in various places.
All in all he should be death if it weren't for her.
And what was worse of all, it was meaningless. His death wouldn't have serve for nothing.
She didn't wake him up, first of all, because she wanted to talk to the girl.
Second, she didn't know what to say to him, because if she were honest to herself, she grew fond of him and knowing that he could have died, made her mad at him.
She wanted to give him a lecture, but knowing that he throw himself into danger to save a little girl made it hard for her.
His action was foolish but it was driven by sheer goodwill and empathy. So telling him something for just doing the right thing, made her feel troubled. Then again, it didn't matter as he was at fault.
'You idiot! It is alright if you want to play the game of the chivalrous knight, but where's your strength to back up your actions!?'
While she was having a hard time deciding what to do, she felt the little girl waking up with tears on her eyes. During her entire sleep she was crying and sobbing, Camille had to intervene several times in order so that she can continue sleeping. Her body was fatigued and was in need of a rest.
But there was nothing she could do with her mind, no matter how predisposed Camille was, trying to enter someone's mind without much experience, could cause that person to take irreparable damage. Much more, the little girl faced an incredibly stressful time that maybe broke her mind.
Seeing the trembling body of the little girl, Camille approached her, With the utmost care and gentleness, she snuggled her into her arms. The girl hugged her hard, while she threw all her grievances in her cry.
Camille was gently caring for her hair as she tried to just be there for the girl.
For a few hours, they just stayed like that. Camille tried to talk to her a few times to see if she could at least knew the name of the little girl, but seeing that she couldn't stop crying or sobbing, she let it go until she was more calm or at least, ready to talk.
She also transfered her a little bit of her energy, as she thought that in her current state, the little girl would not have the appetite to eat something.
Simon wake up a few hours prior, but the moment that he opened both of his eyes, Camille disappeared before he could saw her, knowing that she may probably try to lecture him and she couldn't do it with the girl on her arms.
"We would talk later." That's all she said to him.
...
Simon was currently seated with both hands supporting him, his left hand finger was perfectly fine as the rest of his entire body. He was thinking about the last thing he remembered before appearing here. Taking a beating while he was trying to protect the little girl, or so he thought in that moment.
'Damn, I can't even protect someone, how lame I can be?' He smiled with a contemptuous smile, as he began to think what he did.
He wasn't worried about the little girl, as if he was here, that means that she'd probably too. While he didn't know how long it took to Camille to appear, he hoped that it was on time.
'Do I really have to depend so much on someone else? It has been a few weeks since I came here but nothing changed, I'm still being the same useless guy who I was back then. Why I can't just do once the things right?' He was beginning to feel frustration as he recounted his deeds.
The first week he tried a lot of things, not letting failures affect him. As he believed that once his gift, work or activated, everything will begin to take the right course. So while he was waiting for it, he tried a few things he read in his previous life.
But his gift didn't activate through all this time and as every day passed, he began to stagnate on his test. It wasn't that he abandoned every project he has on mind, but it was hard to take them into reality without any help.
It was one thing making a tool with internet help, but another one doing it without any form of help or anything to follow that wasn't his mental memory.
He had read a lot of things through his life, but never once learned how to make them from zero. It was like to know how to make a hammer, but without knowing how to smithing, mining, recognize the terrain to extract the iron. It was useless if he didn't know the steps prior to the industrial aspect.
It was the same in the aspect of training, as he didn't have the tools to hunt animals to try intake the right amount of food that his body needed. He couldn't even farm correctly with wooden tools.
That's why he was eager to try approach the dwarves living the mountain, as he could ask them for a few tools that could fasten his projects.
He also tried a lot of time to follow Camille's steps in order to awaken the mana, but he didn't even have any idea on how to 'make energy flow' through his body. Hell, he couldn't even found the blank state of mind willingly with so much noise from his thoughts. He didn't know if there was something wrong with him, as in his previous life, none of his psychologists said that he has dementia or any mental illness that wasn't depression and anxiety.
With so much frustration, he finally couldn't take it anymore as his positive state faded away.
Now regaining his previous doomer state, where all truths couldn't escape his mind, he began to see the truth surrounding him.
With a deadpan expression he began to walk through the cave, watching everything surrounding him.
He walked for long minutes until he reached the entrance, where he saw the intrinsical design on the walls. He let his finger trace through them, while he keeps walking.
Outside was already the evening, one of the few things that he enjoyed here was watching the sunset, seeing the beautiful colors while peace reached him. Closing his eyes he tried to hear his surroundings, feel and hear the forest below, the chirping birds, the wind passing through the leaves on the trees, through the mountain borders. He seated down near the cliff in the entrance as he found a little comfort there, being near nature while he tried to find solace in the vastness.
A sour feeling was reaching his nose, his eyes feeling dry. Knowing the old and familiar sensation, he took a long breath, trying to calm himself. He didn't want to fall into a more pessimistic view.
"I just need a little bit more of time, and maybe things will start to take the right pace." He opened both of his eyes, as tired look appeared on his face. His golden eyes looking for something on the horizon. Something to grab hope and strength, to pass all of this. He didn't want to waste his second chance, living like back then.
"It would be so nice if I had music here..." he took a long sigh as he began to hum a melody.
There he stayed until the sun finally disappeared on the horizon, humming a song while watching at nothing but the sky. Only he knowing his feelings and thoughts.
Finally, after the moon's in the sky was brightening, he walked back into the cave.
"How is she, Camille?" He asked with a raspy sound on his voice.
A calm voice reached his eardrums, as Camille answered him "She's better, I could talk with her one hour ago after she calmed down. She didn't say what happened to her but she at least told me her name and how old is she." She took a pause, then she continued. " I didn't want to invade her mind to find out, but I could guess that she probably belongs to a tribe that is near here, there's always fightings and things going on all around them, so I'm wouldn't be surprised if I was right."
"I'm going to stay with her a few days, I could tell that she's still terrified, so I would take advantage of how calmed she seemed to be around me and help her a little bit" Simon was surprised as he didn't think that a girl who was chased down by scums would be comfortable around a giant dragon.
"Are you sure she would be fine around you? I mean you are a dragon, maybe her parents used to tell her stories about your kind to scare her, I don't know" He couldn't help but ask her.
With a loud "Hmph" Simon felt a shockwave passed through his chest as he stepped back a few meters.
"Don't be rude towards me, dragons are praised in all around the world. Also, I'm not into my dragon form right now, this little girl wouldn't handle my appearance, as I feel she need solace instead of reverencing me."
'So she had another form' Simon said to himself.
"Also, now that I'm a little free of time, I would have to talk to you." Suddenly something akin to a shadow, appeared in front of Simon, scaring him a little bit.
"Your foolishness almost took your life and an innocent one too, how can you be so careless? Do you think that you are ready to be outside there with no awareness around you? Don't you see how weak and irrelevant you are? Tell me, what did cross into your mind to wander outside my area?" The shadow took the form Camille's dragon form as she said to him in a stern tone while using her claw to push him on the floor.
With a mocking smile and a contemptuous look in his eyes, Simon glared at his side while answered her.
"I know how weak I am, you don't need to remind me that." he put aside with his hand Camille's claw.
"I was strolling around in search for something to eat, I don't know in which moment I ended up in that place, as I was immersed in my thoughts. When I heard the girl I couldn't back off, so I ended up launching myself there." He then looked at the shadow while he said. "I don't regret it, as I would prefer doing the right thing instead of running away."
Camille stayed silent for a minute until she said to him.
"How hypocrite" Her voice changed to an icy tone " If you really want to do something that has worth, you need something to back it up, your egoistical desires would never be enough.
Let's not even talk about how your action were futile since you couldn't even fight back.
Think, what would have happened if you were to escape successfully of those men's, what would you do later on? Did you really think that you could protect the girl with only yourself? I haven't seen you doing something that could show one bit of responsibility or self-aware, you are like a child who went out to play. So you are telling me that a child is ready to take care of another one? Did you take a moment to think about how irresponsible your action have been?"
Simon tensed up his body when he heard her, but then he sighed as he said her.
"I don't really know what to say to you, there's a lot going on into my head, things that you don't really know and I don't blame you for that, as for your perspective my actions may be seen as you said" He took a pause as a large sigh scaped his mouth "But... I try to do the best I can, yes, my actions have been irresponsible, but you know, I could learn from them and don't make the same mistake later on. I didn't have a plan to do later on with that girl, I was thinking that maybe I could bring her here and talk with you what can I do, as I do not have any idea of what to do in case of a lost child."
Camille didn't let him follow his talk as she cut him.
"So, you are telling me that you weren't thinking about that girl's being? It's okay if you wanted to be selfish with your own life, but you were putting someone else into that, your actions may have brought much more harm to that child's life."
" I'm not saying that it wasn't right to try to save her, but you need something else to back up your decision. There's a life that would be put into your responsibility after you do that, that child will be needing a lot of attention and care. There's a reason behind her running and crying from her chasers in the middle of nothing, so don't try to be a hero out of nothing, it wouldn't help and probably have done more harm. If you really wish to keep doing your egoistical things in the name of well being, make sure that you are strong enough to keep yourself safe and whoever you want to 'protect'." With those words, Camille disappeared in front of him, not caring about his response.
Simon sighed, as he could accept what she said somehow. Whatever he wanted to do or intended to do needed a careful decision and strength to backed up in this world. He knew that his mindset didn't afford him to take care of someone else, less to take the responsibility to implement his plan to make a 'kingdom' for Camille, as he saw, he was only having wishful thinking while only living his life through his imagination.
It was time to face the reality for him, as he finded himself once again being in a powerless state in front of a greater reality and fate that he couldn't face.
"She was harsh, but she told you the truth"
Suddenly a voice sounded on his right side, surprising him. Taking a quick glance he was received by the figure of a middle-aged man with stoic features, his mind couldn't process what happened as he froze on the spot.
The middle-aged man smiled at him and he said in a cheerful voice.
"Hello, Simon"