1. Hire an assassin. Have said assassin pose as a slave (this will have to be a male assassin) and work beside the main character, Ekrem (a slave). The Assassin then (tries to) kill him, and the whole thing can be blamed on a rogue slave. Obviously the man who hired him would then kill the assassin when he comes for his payment.
2. Hire an assassin, a female assassin, and a young one. Have said assassin pose as a water girl, and when she comes to give Ekrem a drink, poison his water with a poison that is slow working, especially if the symptoms look and feel like heat stroke. After he's done working for the day (and of course the poison cup should be given to him during the heat of the day so this all makes sense) he'll die. Ekrem refuses the poison drink however, since one of his friends that day was denied water. Ekrem insists that the drink be given to his friend. The assassin there for must reluctantly agree or else Ekrem with know (he's not stupid either). His friend therefore, dies. This could be decently sad, and also provide and opportunity for Ekrem to get angry…. Obviously he'd want to kill assassin girl. When she fails to kill Ekrem, and runs back to her emplyers tent, he makes sure she doesn't leave…alive.
3. Poison. While the plague is going through (as it already does), Ekrem gets it (this happens already) but he gets better. What if the villain notices he's getting better and decides to make sure he'll die. This villain isn't stupid though. It needs to look like a relapse. So the poison must come in slow doses and spread out over a few weeks. "Lucky" for Ekrem, Hannah (the girl who loves him) notices the difference, as a few new symptoms arise. She has a decent guess that the villain would do something like that, so she determines that nothing that she doesn't buy or find herself will he be allowed to eat. This often includes giving him her own food. Obviously, eventually he gets better and the villain doesn't try that again.
So what do you think? Leave me a comment and let me know!
*hugs to all*
~Natalya