The cactus, bird and a pretty substantial bit of the skin and flesh on my back all fall off with a thud, the spines of the cactus finding a new home in the crib’s twitching flesh.

—Task complete! See, was that so hard? Not at all. Simple stuff.

To show him the prickly fruits of my great labour, I turn to Simel, doing a fun little pose as I do. Unfortunately, this goes unnoticed, because Simel is currently leaning his forehead against his propped-up knees and is therefore unable to see me. Huh. W—well, it might be because the cactus is still covered in flesh and stuff, so if I just fix that, he should be okay. I think.

In silence, I pull off the flesh, mournfully munching on it as I do. As a final act, I remove the bird, leaving the cactus free of all flesh and organs and stuff. It’s still a fair bit bloodied, but that’s just the skin, so it should be okay, right?

I turn back to look at Simel, but he’s still all curled up in a ball against the wall. His shoulders are trembling a bit, but that’s nothing new.

Since he’s apparently still a bit unresponsive, I guess I’ll just keep going. I was going to ask him if he had a knife or something on his person, but I suppose that’ll have to wait.

Bringing my index finger to my face, I give my sharp nail a scrutinising look. After a second or so, I pop it in my mouth and try to clean it as best I can. Hmm. I wonder how much water is in my tear ducts? Or would it be cleaner to use the goop on my eyes to clean it? Argh, this is way too complicated!

When I pull my finger back out, it looks much cleaner than before.

Poison Protection Lv.5>

—Hey, neat! Been a while since I saw that one. Doesn’t bode well for the cleanliness of my finger, though…

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch a glimpse of the cactus’ spines. At least, one of the clean ones.

…Aha!

Feeling like a real clever fella for once, I snap off the little barb. If it’s sharp enough to pierce my skin, then cactus skin should be no different, right? Almost cackling, I hunch down and press the sharp bit of the spine against the cactus. Carefully, carefully…

—There!

The spine slips inside the cactus’ flesh and I feel a rush of victory. So far, so good. Now, to just carefully make a longer slit…

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

After a couple of minutes of careful work, I’ve finally succeeded in chiselling a slit alongside the entire body of the cactus. If would’ve gone much faster if I’d used my claws, but things being as they are, this is the best I can do. With my in complete, I begin carefully stripping the thing. Halfway through removing the skin, I suddenly realise that I actually have no idea what to put the peeled cactus atop. The skins in my inventory aren’t vegan, and neither is my own. Simel still won’t look at me, for some reason.

I eye the cactus.

—Or I can just use the cactus’ own skin. Yeah, that’s… not my proudest intellectual moment.

After a few more minutes, the cactus is fully skinned and on the floor, atop a clean cactus carpet. Phew! And it only took me like an hour. Of course, had this been a goblin or something like that, I could’ve skinned it in a couple of minutes, tops. I really need to up my skill level in non-sentient skinning.

Turning to Simel, I give a beaming smile. He’s still in the same position, but I won’t let that stop me anymore. “Hey, Simel!” I call out. He twitches, but doesn’t move otherwise. My smile drops a little but a shake of the head lets me regain my moxie. “I finished skinning the cactus, so now you can eat! It’s kind of sour, and it doesn’t taste too good, but it’s got plenty of water in it, and you won’t die of it, which is a clear opposite of a non-cactus diet.”

He doesn’t move.

Alright, now that’s just rude. I’ve been labouring over this thing, going to get food, skinning and everything, for hours, and he won’t even look at it? My smile is soon replaced by an irritated frown and I stand up. I trudge over towards Simel. “Okay, listen, Simel… I’ve done you a huge favour here, getting you food and stuff, and it’s fine if you don’t wanna thank me for it, that’s cool, but can’t you at least give it a glance? Is that so much to ask for?”

I’m standing right above him now, his hunched-over form basked in my shadow. He isn’t giving a single hint of caring. Yeah, okay, that’s it.

Reaching down, I grab his arm and pull him up, dragging him off the floor and into the air until his face is level to mine. I bore my eyes into his. “Well? Is it?”

But he still won’t look at me. His eyes are focusing somewhere off in the distance, moving only slightly, and, and… And there’s a trail of tears going down both eyes. A bit of snot is bubbling out of his nose. His mouth is open and his breath is quick.

Still holding him high in the air, I feel my heart drop and all the anger bubbling in my stomach melt away. “S—Simel?” I say. “What’s wrong, Simel? What happened?”

Gently, I lower him a little, but he won’t stand on both feet, even as I lower him, his knees just buckle and I let him slide back down on the floor, where he curls himself up, still silently sobbing. Wh—what… what is…?

I go down on my knees next to him. “Simel, please, what’s wrong? Whatever it is, I’ll put it right! Heh, you know me, Simel, if I want to do something, by God, I’ll do it. You know that, so… So, if you ask for it, I’ll do it. You know that. I’m your friend. I’ll do it, even if it hurts. Won’t you please tell me how I can put this right, Simel? My friend?”

Face dark, eyes slightly reddened, his gaze slowly drags itself across the floor, over to me, up my bloodied body, and to my face. That unidentifiable emotion briefly surges in his eyes before dying away, replaced by dark apathy.

My chest surges with emotions of all sorts, squirming and snapping at each other like a knotted-up ball of rattlesnakes. “Is—is it something I did? Did I do something to you? Did I hurt you?” I almost chuckle out of pure absurdity. “I would never hurt you, Simel. Never. Is it because of the—” I can feel my own face twist like loose dough “—but that wasn’t… Sometimes, to do the right thing, we need to do a few things that maybe don’t look so good. And that’s just how it is, isn’t it?” I almost put my hands on him but a single glance from his dark eyes is enough to stop me. I pull back my arm and clutch my hand to my chest.

“Whatever it looks like, whatever it seems like, whatever you think…” I gulp. “All I’ve ever wanted is to—”

Hell Difficulty Fifteenth Floor

Boss Stage>

<[Clear Condition]

Do the right thing.>