"Someone, hurry! Ser Aris smashed his head against the wall and killed himself!" Ian's shout came from the cellar below.
Before long, Ian's squire Keith and Ser Roger Grey, Ser Veld's son, rushed downstairs.
"What happened?" The moment Roger entered the cellar, he first saw Ian half-crouching on the ground, then Ser Aris sprawled beside him.
Roger strode forward and held his torch close to Aris's face. Only then did he see the huge bloody hole in Aris's forehead and the ground beside him, already completely stained red with blood.
"He's dead. He suddenly became agitated just now, then rammed his head into the wall," Ian said as he rose to his feet. "I tried to save him immediately, but his injuries were too severe." As he spoke, Ian pointed at Aris's blood-soaked clothes. "I tried to stop the bleeding, but I failed."
"Smashing his head against the wall? We tied Aris's hands and feet when we captured him. How could he—" Roger stopped halfway through, suddenly noticing the loosened ropes beside the corpse. "Did you untie the ropes on him?" Ser Roger immediately grew angry.
"I was interrogating him, and your father knew about it," Ian said, feigning dejection. "But Ser Aris refused to cooperate. He demanded that I untie him and give him the treatment a captured knight deserved."
"And you actually did it? Weren't you afraid he'd escape?"
"He doesn't even have a right hand! How was he supposed to escape?" Ian was 'angry' now as well. He only raised his voice slightly, yet it overwhelmed Ser Roger's presence. "I just wanted him to confess a little more. Who the fuck could have imagined he'd kill himself?"
"But—" The rebuttal reached Roger's lips, but he forced himself to swallow it. He knew perfectly well that if this