Whilst reading that last sentence, the nobleman's half-amused expression wilted. "You dare claim yourself a man? Of equal status to I, Teward Rifton?!"
*Shit!* Rizz kept his frustration sealed while shaking his head with fury.
"You… a lowly monster have no right to speak in my presence. Let alone claim to be my equal." The man displayed a hideous frown.
He stuck out his chest, raised his chin, and pointed his palm to the ceiling. The embers grew into a small, controlled fireball. It matched the orange and red sash adorning Teward's chest. The rest of his clothes were all buttoned and cleanly pressed.
The man's noble brown vest and pants made it look like Teward's torso was a mighty tree protected by a ring of flames.
Scanning the man from head to toe, Rizz forced himself to not sneer. He bantered with himself instead, *You go around with buckled shoes and a shitty powdered wig? And I'm the crazy one?*
Teward stiffly ordered, "Comply, fiend, or perish in flames."
Rizz kept one hand on his head while rubbing away his old words. Speedily, Rizz wrote:
"I am sorry… Lord Rifton… I will comply."
Not saying a word, Teward nodded to one of his guards. The man bowed and dashed out of the room's only door. He returned just a few minutes later with a set of iron shackles.
Rizz didn't need to write or ask anything. He held out his wrists and let the men restrain him without a fight. Still sitting cross-legged, Rizz let his shackled hands clatter to the floor.
However, atop the backburner of Rizz's mind, grudge-inducing ire simmered and bubbled. *Ohhh… you'll rue the day you forced me into chains, Lord Douche-ard.*
Teward was blind to the hidden machinations of the goblin's mind. "Hmm… At least you're fast to accept your place, filthy fiend."
"Father…" the young adult woman spoke softly. She kept her distance from the detained creature. "W-what of my familiar?"
"This… this must be a joke of the devil…" Teward smugly scoffed. "Elenia. Fill your crest with mana."
"Yes, Father."
The young woman brought her hands in front of her, laying one hand atop the other. A subtle glow appeared from the lower hand, on the backside of her right palm.
At the same time, Rizz felt a strange warmth on the back of his left hand. He then dropped all previous assumptions of his situation.
*I'm her damn familiar?! Not even a regular summon?* Rizz's pieced it all together that instant, keeping his thoughts to himself.
The next to confirm the matter was Teward, who clenched his fist to extinguish the fireball. "The devil be damned… The fiend is truly the familiar. It's no lie…"
"Impossible!" the older woman barked like a chihuahua. "Kill it! Just kill it and do it all again!"
Both guards readied their stances and prepared their blades for plunging stabs.
Rizz was right there with them, mentally mapping out what may or may not happen in the next few seconds. *Roll back. Trip the guards. Steal a sword. And hold a man hostage. For plan B…*
"No! Keep your swords!"
The guards listened to Teward without delay. They returned to a more neutral position while keeping their blades drawn.
The woman, on the other hand, cried into Teward's ear. "What are you doing?! Kill the fiend, now!"
"Calm yourself, Ceenia. This situation is far more complex and difficult than you give it credit…" Teward groaned through his ugly grimace. "How dare you, fiend? How sick must you be to trick us and force yourself upon my daughter."
Rizz's eyes shot open and his face hit the cold, stone floor. "I did nothing. I had no plans to arrive here. And I have done nothing but beg for a chance to speak. What do you take me for, a monster?"
"That is precisely what you are!" barked Teward, snapping his fingers to create a trickle of flames. "And you shall never be anything more, aside from soot and manure belonging in the fields."
*You're pushing your luck, Lord Douche-ard,* Rizz mentally scoffed.
Rizz's mouth, however, pled, "I'm innocent! I've done nothing but exist. Or is that also a sin."
"But of course! Fiends, monsters, and imps all deserve death. That is mercy enough," Teward lectured the begging goblin with his fiery leer.
Sighing through the depths of his mind, Rizz longed for a weapon. Any weapon. It could've been a butter knife, and Rizz would've offered great thanks to whoever could provide such a plain blade.
Still, Teward recalled his flames and begrudgingly clenched his fists. "... Damn the devil! How dare my family, my daughter be cursed as such!"
The nobleman berated the heavens with fingers mangled by malice. He spat venom to the skies before his wife and daughter.
And Rizz was left there, on the floor. With nothing to do but wait. To wait and learn his unlikely fate; to be bound to a pompous nobleman and his moronic family.
*Damn Douche-ard… Fucking curse of the familiar… Shitty Stooge…* Rizz waded through his thoughts in privacy. He kept his face to the ground to hide Rizz's vengeful smirk.
*If you think this is enough to do me in, you've got something else coming, Stooge. You'll have to try harder than this to get the best of Rizzio McKlank Von Thong. It's only a matter of time till I beat your little game again and slap your shady face.*
… tah, duh, tah, toooom…
A familiar, whispering chime percolated through Rizz's head. His eyelids sprang back into the recesses of Rizz's goblin skull. He lifted his face a few centimeters to make sure his field of view was easier on the eyes.
*... There's no way…*
Rizz greedily slapped a hand over his mouth. It was the only way, or Rizz would've started laughing amidst the resident lord's tantrum.
*You know what… maybe you aren't so bad, you shady sage,* Rizz internally laughed, almost trembling mid-kowtow.
At the top of Rizz's view was a small strip of text with a transparent yet slightly blurred background.
[Achievement System… Activated.]