Lizi wore her hair in a ponytail, with a longsword strapped to her waist.
She always wanted to learn swordsmanship from Kaleem, but Kaleem used a giant sword, which was not suitable for her.
Despite the boring task, she remained dutiful, pacing back and forth beside the iron cage, occasionally checking on Ives’s condition.
This task was assigned by Kaleem, and she was determined to complete it perfectly, not wanting to leave a bad impression on Kaleem.
The clouds were thick tonight, and the moon was hidden behind them, making the night particularly dark.
"Water..." Ives suddenly uttered weakly.
Lizi immediately turned her head and asked, "What?"
"Water... just give me a little water, I feel like I’m dying." Ives said weakly, gasping heavily like he could die at any moment.
Lizi refused, "No, you can only drink water once a day, and you already had it today."
Ives pleaded, "Please, I’m getting weaker by the day. Drinking water once a day is no longer enough. I know my body best, cough... cough... just a little water, or I’m really going to... die..."
He spoke intermittently, exhaling more than inhaling, looking like he was really about to go.
Lizi hesitated, "Kaleem wants him alive to send him personally to the gallows. If he dies now, Kaleem will surely be displeased. Just a little water..."
"Then I’ll get you some." She remembered the water bucket was not far away, and people would scoop a ladle of water to drink whenever they felt thirsty.
Lizi went over in a few steps, scooped a ladle of water, and steadily carried it to the iron cage.
The iron cage was small and low on the ground. Lizi held the ladle above the cage and said, "Open your mouth."
Ives quietly said before slowly opening his mouth.
Lizi started tilting the ladle, and water began to drip down.
Suddenly, a minuscule dark shadow flashed by.
Lizi’s eyes widened in surprise, her beautiful eyes bulging round, then she lunged forward, collapsing on top of the iron cage.
A bloody hole appeared on her forehead, and another on the back of her head, from which crimson blood flowed.
Ives looked coldly at the corpse, glanced around, then laboriously extended his deformed left hand, struggling to hook the keys on Lizi’s waist that included the key to the iron cage.
He had been hiding a tiny bone shard in his mouth all along.
Ives usually ate the same food as slaves, which was leftovers from a slop bucket.
The slop bucket had mixed types of food, and one day he found a small bone shard.
After finding the bone, he immediately hid it nonchalantly under his tongue.
The guards watching him never checked his mouth, so the bone had been hidden for more than twenty days and was crucial for his escape.
As Lizi approached to pour water, the moment he opened his mouth, he used all his strength to shoot the bone shard, piercing through Lizi’s head.
With experience in concealing his progress in recovering his limbs, he deliberately masked the progress of his left hand’s recovery, as a delay of one or two days wouldn’t be noticed, merely thought to be the result of long-term injury healing progressively slower.
Although he was crippled and gravely injured, he was still a Great Knight.
Even without the use of his arms and legs, he still had his mouth and chest to exert strength.
To deal with someone like Lizi, who wasn’t even a Knight, he only needed functional body parts above his neck.
It was at the moment when he shot through Lizi’s head that Herag sensed the commotion through Shenlan.
Ives strained to extend his hand outside the cage, struggling to hook the bunch of keys.
He pressed his whole body against the cage, just to extend his arm a little further.
As he was about to hook the keys with his fingers, they were snatched away by a hand that suddenly appeared.
Ives stared blankly, raising his head to see Herag smiling at him.
"Give me... I’m begging you..." Ives pleaded genuinely this time.
Herag smiled, "Seems like you really want to get out, so focused that you didn’t notice me walking up next to you."
"Please..." Ives pleaded softly.
He didn’t dare speak loudly, knowing that alerting anyone else would dash all hopes of escape.
Herag spread his hands, "Sorry, I won’t meddle in your affairs. I’m stopping you from escaping only because it would delay our travel if you got away."
He didn’t care whether Ives lived or died, nor did he care about his escape.
The main issue was that if Ives escaped, Kaleem would surely make every effort to recapture him upon finding Lizi dead, and that would definitely disrupt the caravan’s schedule.
If Herag had to travel alone, it would still be half a month’s journey, and preparing supplies would also be a hassle. Newest update provided by novel{f}ire.net
So to minimize trouble for himself and avoid disrupting the journey, he decisively stopped Ives’s escape attempt.
"Kaleem, your captive’s trying to escape, and you’re still sleeping?" Herag’s voice wasn’t loud, but it was particularly clear amidst the quiet night.
Several nearby caravans immediately lit up, and some people, disheveled and drowsy, grabbed lamps to get off and check the situation.
Kaleem rushed over and immediately saw Lizi collapsed on the cage with eyes wide in anger, "Lizi!"
He rushed forward to hold Lizi’s body, and after glancing at the wound on Lizi’s head, he felt his heart sink, knowing she was beyond saving.
"Who did this!" Kaleem roared in fury.
He always treated Lizi like a sister; to him, Lizi was a pure and cute girl whom he took care of in many ways.
With Lizi’s tragic death, Kaleem was overwhelmed with anger and sadness.
Ives quickly crawled to the other side of the cage, not daring to look at Kaleem.
"Was it you?" Kaleem noticed Ives’s movement in the cage and shouted angrily.
By now, almost everyone in the caravan was awake, and many people approached, with several women gasping and covering their mouths upon seeing Lizi’s body in Kaleem’s arms.
Ives shook his head frantically, "No... it wasn’t..."
"It was Ives who did it; the weapon was probably something bone-related hidden in his mouth," Herag said from the side.
Kaleem glanced at the wound again, then looked at the ladle on the ground and the traces of water, quickly piecing together the entire event based on Herag’s information.
"Ives!" he roared, placing Lizi’s body aside, then brutally tore apart the iron cage, pulling Ives out like a chick.