Raising a Wolf in the Academy

Perhaps thinking there was no need to act anymore.
The man did not take his base gaze off me.
A terrifying gaze that seemed to be assessing the value of my soul scanned my entire body.
I wanted to gouge out those eyes right away, but that’s impossible for me now.
I don’t dwell on things I can’t do immediately.
First, I needed to figure out where this place was.

I quickly surveyed the surroundings so the man wouldn’t notice.
And I couldn’t help but be surprised.
That’s because this place was too clean to perform a ritual.
I could understand the absence of other dark magicians.
If multiple people performed the ritual, the blessing each individual received would be reduced proportionally.
I could also understand the absence of altars or magic circles for the ritual.
Judging by how my attack didn’t work on him earlier, he seemed to be a quite high-level dark magician.
If he had reached that level, such outward trappings might actually be more of a hindrance.
‘But it’s not just clean… Certainly, there’s something strange about this place.’
A place that denies the very foundation of the god they worship – impurity.
Even a high-ranking official couldn’t perform a ritual in such a place.
God does not respond to those who have forgotten what they worship.
That’s why dark magicians’ dwellings are always covered in all kinds of filth.
Combined with the impure aura emanating from them, it gives off a stench so strong it can be distinguished even from far away.
But this place?
Isn’t it a clean space without any contamination, except for the man in front of me?
This place was too neat to be a ritual site.
Even the bed occupying one corner of the room.
It’s almost like…
‘A breeding pen.’
Breeding pen.
Is there a better way to describe this place?
A comfortable environment not polluted at all, as if considering someone who isn’t a dark magician.
Rather than a place to perform rituals, it was closer to a place to raise the sacrifice.
‘But, why?’
I couldn’t understand.
What reason could there be to raise me here?
‘Because the preparations for the ritual aren’t complete?’
It was a strange assumption even to myself.
What more could someone who could perform the ritual right away with just the right place, without any preparation, be preparing?
‘Because there’s information to extract from me?’
This seemed to make some sense.
If so. What could that information be?
‘The location of the beastperson village where I was born?’
Certainly, the people of the village where a cursed child was born would be good sacrifices, both in quality and quantity.
Among the speculations so far, this seemed the most plausible.
But why?
It didn’t seem like that man was keeping me alive just for something like that.
The beastperson’s ‘instinct’ honed from living in the wild was telling me so.
Not just a village-level ritual, but something bigger.
And that would be the reason for keeping me alive.
“…..”
Even while I was thinking this, he didn’t take his eyes off me.
I naturally had no intention of speaking to him first, and this seemed to be the same for him.
“…..”
“…..”
In the silence that seemed like it would continue endlessly, he was the one who moved first.
He left the room.
Whether he let his guard down because I was trapped in the cage, or thought my body was weakened from long confinement, I don’t know.
One thing for sure is that he didn’t give me any orders.
The slave imprint engraved on the collar prohibits slaves from acting against the master’s orders.
Conversely, this means there are no restrictions on actions that haven’t been ordered.
‘Of course, things like suicide can be prohibited even without an order, but what I’m trying to do now isn’t suicide.’
I grab the cage bars and apply force to my arms.
—Crunch!
The cage that was confining me bent easily, to the point where it was doubtful whether it really existed to confine anything.
Soon, a gap large enough for a beastperson to pass through with room to spare was created.
‘Even if I’ve weakened, I can still do this much.’
The reason I was quietly waiting for death in this cage wasn’t because I lacked strength, but because of the slave imprint.
It’s strange that someone whose teeth couldn’t even sink in when a beastperson attacked with full force.
‘Well, but… it seems he let his guard down because of that.’
Not giving any orders to a beastperson who could escape anytime if there were no restrictions?
It was like a guard opening the prison door for a prisoner.
‘By the way, there are a lot of magic books. What’s the point of keeping these things in a room for storing sacrificial objects?’
While examining the room in case of any traps, I noticed the bookshelf.
Magic books filling the bookshelf.
I could tell they were high-level magic books from the faint magical power emanating from them even though they were just shelved.
I thought about taking a few to secure funds for escape, but.
I gave up because they could be used to track my location.
It wasn’t worth risking pursuit for just a bit of money.
Besides magic books, I saw many other items that looked valuable at a glance, but I couldn’t take them for the same reason.
‘Enough useless thoughts. I need to get as far away as possible before he comes back.’
I won’t waste this opportunity that might never come again.
It was fortunate that I had recognized the difference in our abilities at the shop.
If I hadn’t, I would have been waiting to ambush him when he returned.
After confirming there was no magic hanging in the room, I stepped out of the cage.
I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve stepped on something other than the cold cage floor.
But there was no time to indulge in such sentiments.
I quickly approached the door and grabbed the doorknob.
‘If I can just get far away from here and cut off the collared imprint, they won’t be able to chase me—!’
At that moment, the imprint engraved on the collar lit up.
This meant one thing.
That the slave had not followed an order.
Naturally, punishment awaited a slave who didn’t follow orders.
“Kuk…! Kuhek….!”
In the extreme pain where I could barely breathe properly, only one question circled in my mind.
‘He definitely didn’t give any orders…’
I was sure.
He didn’t say anything until he left the room.
‘Then why… ho—’
—Crackle!
“Kugh… kurk…!”
I couldn’t even think properly due to the extreme pain that seemed endless.
But one thing.
I seemed to know how to get out of this situation.
‘I guess it’s just obediently going back into the cage… Can’t be helped…’
I don’t know how he did it.
But having received an order prohibiting escape, there was no way for me, a slave, to resist.
The pain only stopped after I obediently returned to the cage and restored the bars to their original state.
“Huff… hah… damn it!”
Anger welled up.
At the bastard who was completely toying with me.
At my powerless self who couldn’t do anything despite being treated like this.
“I’ll definitely… kill you…”
Strength enters my hands planted on the floor.
I suppress my anger, thinking there must be a weakness even in that body where teeth couldn’t sink in.
Judging by his actions, it didn’t seem like he would kill me right away.
As long as I was alive, I could aim for opportunities anytime.
How much time had passed?
Just as the pain was gradually subsiding and my excitement was calming down.
“….!”
I heard footsteps.
Along with the smell of grilled meat.
My body reacted to the smell of food I hadn’t smelled in a long time.
-Growl
“…Damn it.”
Although the decision to dispose of me was made today, there had been opinions to gradually dispose of me before that.
Even the garbage-like porridge that was being rationed wasn’t given for about three days.
In other words.
It means I’ve been starving for four days as of today.
-Growl
My stomach, which hadn’t eaten or drunk anything for four days, clamored to put something in it upon smelling food.
‘I used to be fine even after starving for over a week in the past…’
Reminding myself that my body had considerably weakened, I try to calm my stomach that was about to growl again.
There was nothing good about showing weakness to the enemy.
A moment later, the door opened and the professor entered.
Holding something in one hand.
Whether he had cast some magic, I couldn’t even see its outline properly, but.
The smell I had been smelling until just now was emanating from inside it.
‘If he intended to hide the contents, he would have erased the smell too… Why?’
“Now, look here. Guess what I brought?”
The professor said in a comically drawn-out tone, raising what he was holding as if to emphasize it.
While I was confused by his behavior, completely different from his appearance at the shop.
He slowly started to bend down to the floor.
Soon, the object he was holding was placed on the floor.
At the same time, as the magic was dispelled, the identity of the object was revealed.
“…!”
A plate full of meat.
Seeing those, I could finally understand his purpose.
Torture.
Inflicting physical and mental pain on the sacrifice multiplies the effect of the ritual.
Since physical pain requires preparation.
He’s probably trying to inflict mental pain, which can be done immediately without separate preparation.
“…..”
By stimulating hunger, one of the basic desires.
‘You think I’ll just go along with it?’
I turned my head as if I didn’t care whether you ate that or not.
My stomach tried to growl at the strong smell of meat wafting right in front of me, but I endured it.
But.
“….?”
His reaction was a bit strange.
Despite me blatantly ignoring him, he just kept looking at me without saying anything.
Then he picked up the plate on the floor and opened the cage door to come in.
Silently smiling as if to say someone like me couldn’t possibly hurt him.
Eventually…
‘Wait. Why is he putting this in front of me?’
He put the plate of meat down in front of me.
-Growl
With food this close, my body that had been starving for four days didn’t obey its owner’s control.
Although I had resolved not to play along with his plan, I tried to get as far away from the plate as possible in the narrow cage.
But as if even the sacrifice’s struggle was amusement to him, he only smiled more broadly.
Eventually, the professor opened his mouth.
“I made this for you. Don’t hold back, eat a lot.”
Don’t hold back, ‘eat’ a lot.
Detecting the master’s order, the slave imprint instantly made me bury my head in the plate and put food in my mouth.
It was an utterly humiliating situation, but.
My body, reacting to proper food I was eating after a long time, moved even more actively.
‘…Wait, he said he made this for me?’
Until I questioned his words.
‘The kind of meat a dark magician would feed to a sacrifice is…’
No way, human.
“Urp…!”
As I realized the identity of these, nausea welled up, but.
The slave imprint forced me to chew and swallow all the meat, regardless of its identity.
I chew and swallow the meat with my mouth while feeling like my insides were turning over.
At the same time, the anger I had barely suppressed starts to burn even more strongly.
Thinking about it, it was natural.
There was no way the meat brought by a dark magician would be normal.
I felt disgusted with myself for feeling happiness, even if just for a very brief moment, while putting this in my mouth.
I rolled my eyes to look at the professor.
As if he knew I had noticed the truth about the meat, the smile on his face deepened.
“…!?”
Eventually, he started to toy with my body as well.
He messed up my hair roughly.
He stroked my back.
He bit my nape.
Besides these, countless other shameful acts continued.
Until he wrapped his arm around my neck and made me faint.
The last thing that entered my eyes before fainting.
Was his face smiling creepily.
It seems… I won’t be dying anytime soon.
‘Someday… I’ll make you regret this moment… Your nape as you regret not killing me then—’

‘Huh?!’
After bonding enough to be satisfied, I came to my senses.
What I see is a wolf snuggling in my arms, looking dazed.
‘…This is strange.’
Surely the last image of the wolf I remember wasn’t like this.
In this situation that felt like a film had been cut off.
For a moment, I recalled what had happened until just now in my head.
The image of myself burying my face in its mane, rubbing and sniffing frantically…
‘Oh, my.’
What am I to do about this.