"Little Kitty Sister, we need your help!" Wu Qingsong called out to the catgirl maid outside the ventilation opening.

Her shadow lingered there, and Wu Qingsong could even make out the tip of her white tail gently swaying in the air. Yet, he couldn't discern what she was thinking at that very moment.

Placing such a momentous responsibility on the shoulders of a young girl like her might be excessively cruel. A few songs, a handful of stories, and a scant amount of food were hardly compelling reasons for her to risk her life. But right then and there, Wu Qingsong had no alternatives but her.

All he could promise was an uncertain future that he himself couldn't guarantee, but he firmly believed that once they escaped, he could provide them with a life far better than what they had before.

"If you don't help, our only path is death," he said, his voice tinged with disappointment. But then again, he didn't even know her name. Would he really take such a risk for a total stranger, someone locked away in a basement by their master, if he were in her position?

Ling appeared to have sensed the catgirl's presence and looked at Wu Qingsong with an expression of puzzlement. Just as he was about to lose hope, the small figure finally poked her tiny head out from the ventilation hole.

She must have hesitated for quite a while, but finally, with a soft and uncertain voice, she asked, "Meow~ What... what do you want me to do?"

"I need tools, something capable of breaking these iron bars!" Wu Qingsong exclaimed, suddenly invigorated. "I'm begging you, please!"

"Tools to break the iron bars?" The catgirl repeated softly, then rapidly retreated back into the ventilation opening.

Wu Qingsong waited in anxious anticipation, pondering what she might bring him. A hacksaw? A file? Or something else? After an agonizing wait, she finally returned, but only with a few small knives and an axe that seemed fit for chopping wood.

She nervously placed these items at the opening of the cage, her tail swaying anxiously back and forth.

Wu Qingsong was at a loss for words. She had surely done her utmost, but these tools were evidently no match for the iron bars as thick as fingers.

"These... these are quite good, but do you have a saw?" he asked, using the gentlest tone he could muster. "A chisel would also suffice."

The catgirl disappeared once more into the ventilation opening. After a little while, she returned, struggling to drag an iron rod almost as long as her body.

Wu Qingsong looked at the fresh stains on her maid's dress, his heart filled with deep emotion. He could fully imagine the immense effort it took for her delicate frame to haul back this heavy object. Although it seemed unlikely to be of any use, he nodded his thanks vigorously, "Thank you so much!"

The three began working around the iron cage.

The idea of using urine to corrode and hasten the rusting of the iron bars proved to be entirely futile. If he were to be imprisoned here for over a year or more, perhaps it might work. But over the mere span of twenty or so days, the finger-thick iron bars had only accumulated minimal rust.

The small knives were also useless. The only tools that could be used were the axe and the iron rod. Given the primitive technological level of this world, the axe likely wasn't made of steel, as its blade became nicked after just a few chops. Ultimately, Wu Qingsong had no choice but to use the iron rod, with one end slightly flattened like a chisel, chipping repeatedly at the base of the bars in hopes of loosening them.

They didn't appear to be welded together, but rather heated and hammered into cohesion. This method might have potential.

However, the noise was so loud that Wu Qingsong had to send the catgirl to keep watch, lest the sound of metal striking be detected.

"What's your name, Kitty Sister?" he asked the catgirl.

"Liu... Liuli," the catgirl replied softly, then quickly scampered out through the ventilation opening.

After an entire day of relentless hammering, one of the iron bars finally began to loosen, filling Wu Qingsong with a glimmer of hope. But Liuli quickly came running down, exclaiming, "Meow~ Lord Kleine is back!"

With Ling's help, Wu Qingsong hastily hid the tools under a piece of cloth curtain, ready to greet Kleine's arrival.

"Tomorrow, or the day after at the latest, you should be able to get out," Kleine said, placing the food inside the cage as usual.

Commander Vals and his team had already prepared to set out. Since they were not going to war but rather to raid, there was little need for logistical preparations, making the process quick and convenient.

For Kleine, delivering food and water to Wu Qingsong daily and having to handle his waste sporadically was a rather distasteful task for a half-elf like him. In a way, he felt a sense of imminent relief.

'So soon?' Wu Qingsong's heart felt as if it had been heavily struck by a drum. 'The news has come back this quickly?'

"What's the matter? Aren't you pleased?" Kleine noticed his reaction.

"No! Of course not," Wu Qingsong quickly replied. "It's just that, since I'll be free by tomorrow or the day after, couldn't I move around the house a bit today? Even if it's just in the basement?"

"You can't endure just one more day?" Kleine couldn't help but sneer. "I've already taken a great risk. Don't push your luck. Rest well for now."

He then went upstairs as usual, but to Wu Qingsong's surprise, he did not retreat to the study to read or rest as he typically did. Instead, he left the house shortly afterward.

"Liuli! Liuli!" Wu Qingsong called out loudly after confirming that Klein had left.

"Meow?" A small figure appeared at the ventilation opening.

"Did Kleine leave?"

"Meow~ Lord Klein changed into formal attire. He must be attending a banquet," the catgirl answered.

Heaven never seals off all exits!

"Did he leave the key behind? The key to this cage?" Wu Qingsong asked urgently.

"Meow~ No," Liuli replied with certainty. "Lord Kleine took all the keys with him."

"Then, please keep a lookout," Wu Qingsong said, promptly picking up the iron rod and setting to work again.

Since he couldn't pry the lock open from inside the cage, and this task was beyond Liuli's abilities, his only option was to attempt to break through the iron bars.

Between the iron bars, there was a net made of thin iron wire, but he figured he should be able to cut through it with the axe. According to the spacing of the iron bars and his body size, he would only need to find a way to loosen three of them to slip out sideways.

"Ling, try to shake the bar that's already loose," he instructed, working furiously himself.

Neither Ling nor Liuli knew why he was so desperate to escape, but no one had ever treated them with such gentleness and equality before. This made them willing to follow his instructions, even though they didn't understand.

After gaining some experience and mastering the technique, the second iron bar finally began to loosen after nearly two hours of frantic hammering. The previous bar, under Ling's vigorous shaking, had also come loose from its base. This encouraged Wu Qingsong, but just then, Liuli appeared in a panic at the vent, "Meow~ Lord Kleine is back!"

The banquet in this world ended so quickly? Shouldn't a proper banquet last into the night, with everyone drinking themselves into a stupor, perhaps engaging in a casual fling or two, and then not returning home until the next morning?

With Kleine's good looks, shouldn't he be popular? Could he actually be a homebody?

Wu Qingsong immediately stopped his work and hid the tools once again. Then, he looked around and gently embraced Ling. "We must pretend to be asleep."

Ling's face flushed crimson in an instant, but thankfully, the dim lighting kept her embarrassment hidden from Wu Qingsong's sight. The two of them lay side by side on the fabric curtain, feigning sleep in each other's arms, their ears trained on Kleine's footsteps as he entered the house. They heard him pause upstairs before making his way toward the basement entrance.

'What's happening?'

A slight shiver ran through Wu Qingsong's heart. He listened intently to the footsteps above, noticing the flicker of light entering the basement, and then sat up, acting as if he had just been roused from sleep.

"What's going on?" he slurred, feigning grogginess.

Kleine, however, remained silent. Lifting the oil lamp, he wandered around the basement before stopping beside the cage.

"You tonight..." Wu Qingsong began to say.

But with a sudden "swish," Kleine's sword shot out of its sheath, thrusting accurately through a narrow gap in the cage to pierce Wu Qingsong's chest. The forceful attack sent him crashing backward onto Ling, who screamed in surprise.

"You..." Wu Qingsong gasped, clutching at the sharp pain in his chest. Though the blade had not penetrated his defenses, the impact left him struggling for breath.

Just then, Kleine had reached the area they had previously damaged, and his footsteps abruptly halted.

"What in the world..." Wu Qingsong stammered, but Kleine's blade struck again and hit a loosened iron bar, causing it to sway violently.

Kleine's face was a mask of cold fury.

The celebratory banquet, wishing success to Commander Val's and others' military endeavors, was far from over. However, Kleine had run into a squad captain at the feast, who had inadvertently mentioned hearing metallic clanging sounds from Kleine's basement as he passed by earlier that day.

"You're not crafting weapons yourself, are you?" the captain had asked, his words slurred by drink.

The Empire's laws certainly didn't prohibit half-elves from owning weapons, but the craft of blacksmithing was deemed a lowly profession. The exception to this was the creation of magical weapons, a feat reserved exclusively for powerful magicians, something entirely beyond the capabilities of a mere half-elf squad captain like Kleine.

The comment was an unmistakable insult, and it instantly put Kleine on high alert.

A metallic clanging sound? At home, there was only a timid catgirl maid and a caged half-elf.

He fixed his gaze into the man's eyes, assuring him that there was no reason for deception in this matter. Then, finding a convenient excuse, he abruptly left and rushed back home.

"You're trying to escape?" he demanded, enunciating each word.

Wu Qingsong didn't respond. He was at a loss as to where things had gone awry, but the current situation had devolved into the most dire scenario he could have imagined.

Kleine suddenly turned his head, and a thought struck Wu Qingsong. He immediately screamed at the top of his lungs, "Liuli! Run! Run!"

"As expected..." Kleine sprinted upstairs, sword at the ready, intending to dispose of the duplicitous catgirl. However, the tiny maid had already fled, warned by Wu Qingsong's shouts.

"I'll flay you alive!" Kleine bellowed. He knew she couldn't have gone far, but his status prevented him from personally pursuing a mere maid throughout the city at night.

"You're doomed," he thundered.

Rem City was neither heavily fortified nor an open-access place. With dawn, Kleine intended to send out his newly recruited team, confident that the keen-nosed mastiffmen would swiftly apprehend her.

Once more, he descended the stairs.

Wu Qingsong was frantically shaking the two already-loosened iron bars. Though he realized escape was impossible for himself, the much slimmer Ling should have been able to get out. Kleine's reappearance, however, extinguished that glimmer of hope.

"Don't blame me for this," Kleine sneered, a wicked smile creeping across his face.