Raising a Wolf in the Academy

“My arms… My arms feel like they’re going to fall off…”
Aisha keeps groaning, clutching her arms that were overworked from cleaning the kitchen.
Since magic couldn’t be used in the kitchen, we had to wipe everything by hand, so all our arms were worn out.
‘Ah, Chancellor. Why on earth.’
All this hardship was thanks to our damn… esteemed Chancellor.
The Chancellor decreed:
Food cooked with magic has no heart in it, so using magic in the kitchen is forbidden.
Yet the school cafeteria uses magic for mass cooking, so I don’t understand what the criteria for having heart is.

-Growl
Perhaps because my mind was gone from the hard labor, I was thinking about what heart means, something I wouldn’t normally consider.
When suddenly, a stomach growled.
It wasn’t me, for sure.
And currently, there are only my assistant and me in the office.
“Ms. Aisha?”
“…!?”
When I asked about the source of the sound to the likely… in fact, the only candidate, her face started turning red rapidly.
“N-no, it’s not… I mean… The next room! It was a sound from the next room!”
“You know that all the professors’ rooms are soundproofed, don’t you?”
“Uuuh…”
As if she didn’t think this lie would work either, she turns her head away in embarrassment.
‘Come to think of it, I haven’t had dinner either.’
It occurred to me while teasing Aisha.
After cooking the wyvern meat, the kitchen became unusable, so I couldn’t make my dinner.
In other words, I’m hungry too.
Originally, I was planning to skip dinner and eat a big breakfast tomorrow.
But having a meal wouldn’t be bad either.
Conveniently, there’s someone in front of me who didn’t have dinner because she helped clean the kitchen.
If it was just me, it might be different, but she’s at an age where she should be growing.
The reason she couldn’t eat dinner was because she helped clean the kitchen at my request, so I should take responsibility.
“Well then, Ms. Aisha. It might be a bit much to call it compensation for helping with the cleaning, but would you like to have dinner together?”
“Ye-yes?! Really?”
She visibly brightened at the dinner invitation.
Seeing her react like this made me feel guilty about my intention to reheat the food left over by the wolf.
‘Right… No matter what, I can’t serve food that a pet has eaten to a child who’s this happy.’
It seemed that just adding a little seasoning to the leftover meat would make it more than suitable for human consumption, but.
“A meal cooked by the Professor…!”
Thinking about trying to serve such a thing as cooking to a child who’s expecting this much made my conscience ache even more.
Only after deciding to serve a proper meal could I suppress the pain.
‘I have some meat left over from cooking earlier.’
I was originally planning to grill it for breakfast tomorrow, but it seemed better to give it to her.
How could a professor be stingy with such things towards his own assistant?
Considering the work she usually does, this is rather insufficient.
“Since you’ve used a lot of energy today, I was thinking of grilling some meat specially. Is that okay?”
-Nod nod!
“Alright. I’ll grill it for you as quickly as possible.”
As if there was no need to answer, her head bobbed up and down.
Her green hair got disheveled with the intense movement.
Leaving that sight behind, I entered the now clean kitchen and opened the refrigerator.
For some unknown reason, despite the kitchen being half-destroyed, only the refrigerator and some utensils were intact.
Thanking the refrigerator that had safely protected the ingredients from the terrible disaster, I took out the meat from inside.
Side dishes or seasonings to go with the meat… unfortunately, they didn’t seem to have survived.
‘It’s something that even the meat is intact.’
Deciding to think positively, I put the meat on the heated pan.
-Sizzle~
As the meat cooked, it spread a different smell from before.
It didn’t take long since the quantity was small.
When I headed to the dining table with the freshly grilled meat.
Aisha, who had already set up all the tableware, was waiting.
“Here, please don’t hold back.”
“Thank you for the meal!”
As soon as my permission dropped, she took the meat and started cutting it.
…She must have been very hungry.
Her quite combative appearance was so different from the Aisha I knew that it almost caused cognitive dissonance.
But thinking about the intermittent growling sounds I heard while grilling the meat, I could understand her behavior.
No, this might even be considered mild.
If it were me, I would have already invaded the kitchen and torn into the not-fully-cooked meat.
“Eat slowly, Ms. Aisha. You might get indigestion.”
Nodding her head and swallowing the meat that filled her mouth, she asked.
“By the way, Professor. Where did you get this meat? It doesn’t seem like ordinary beef or pork.”
I had expected it from her almost drinking-like eating, but sure enough, it was a question about the type of meat.
It wasn’t a difficult question to answer, so I decided to tell her.
I was also curious about her reaction after learning its identity.
“It’s wyvern meat.”
“…Pardon?”
-Clang!
Her hand abandoned her meal in shock.
Really, her reactions are always good.
“Wyvern meat? I, I heard that one piece costs half my monthly salary?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“I’ve already eaten more than six pieces… Does that mean my three months’ salary disappeared in an instant!?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
Now realizing what she had been eating, she looks at her plate with trembling eyes.
But the meat she had taken was all eaten and gone, only the bottom of the plate was visible.
Only a little meat juice pooled there proved that meat had existed here.
“Professor… This is a dream, right? Please tell me it’s a dream…”
“It’s reality.”
Eventually, words denying reality started coming out of her mouth.
That appearance was cute too, like a daughter caught doing something bad.
But seeing tears starting to form in her eyes, it seemed I should stop here.
“Don’t think about the price. This is my gift to Ms. Aisha who worked hard all day today. You don’t need to worry about such things.”
Thinking that words alone might not convey my sincerity.
I scooped some meat from my plate and placed it in front of her.
“Even so, the price, if it’s like this…”
“Isn’t money earned to be spent? I’m satisfied seeing Ms. Aisha enjoy the meal.”
“B-but still…”
My assistant is good in every way, but strangely, she was roundabout in these aspects.
For some reason, she almost always showed this behavior when receiving something from me.
An infinite loop of me saying it’s okay, and her saying it’s too much no matter what.
Probably, if I don’t ask her for something, the conversation won’t end.
Reluctantly, I decided to ask for a small errand.
“If you insist, could you buy some pet food later?”
“Pet food… you mean?”
“Yes, pet food. If possible, I’d like to ask for food that canine animals eat.”
“That’s not difficult, but… Is that really enough?”
Yes, that’s enough, Aisha.
Actually, even that isn’t necessary, but I’m doing this because you’d be too uncomfortable otherwise.
“Of course. Actually… I’m going to be quite busy from now on. You know, right?”
“Ce-certainly. The exams are soon…”
“With the exams right around the corner, it’s a bit awkward for me as a professor to leave the academy. Could I… ask you this favor?”
For a while, I looked at her as if to say there’s no one else I could ask but you.
“Ah, alright… I don’t think this is enough to repay, but… if it’s something I can do.”
I told you there’s no need to repay.
She’s too kind for her own good.
I’m afraid she might get scammed somewhere.
Would she really stand as a guarantor if someone asked her to?
“Then I’ll be going now…”
“Ms. Aisha. Could you wait a moment?”
“Yes?”
As she was about to get up and leave, I put an envelope in her hand.
“Professor, this is…?”
“It’s a secret. Open it when you get back.”
At my words, she stops her motion of trying to check inside the envelope.
“Oh, I understand. Then, take care…”
“Yes. You too, Ms. Aisha, get home safely.”
After bowing slightly at the waist, she left the office carrying the envelope with meat.
It’s a gift I gave because I couldn’t forget the image of her stuffing her mouth full of meat just moments ago.
Recalling that image, I think I understand why my grandmother used to take care of me so much.
By the way.
‘Aisha ate a lot of meat.’
She didn’t show any signs of feeling bloated at all.
Is this the power of youth?
‘Compared to that, this body of mine… Ugh!’
Until now, apart from being too old to enroll in the academy, this body was fine in every other way.
It seems one more thing will be added today.
“…I should take a bath.”
Even wyvern meat leaves a smell.

“Sigh…”
Sighs don’t leave the mouth of the girl walking down the corridor after leaving the office.
‘In the end, I received something again…’
Not only could she not help with the Professor’s work, but she ended up receiving something more.
This pained Aisha’s heart.
‘I haven’t even fully repaid the kindness from my childhood yet.’
A great kindness that she couldn’t repay even if she devoted her entire life.
She barely managed to become an assistant at this academy to repay even a little of that, but.
Somehow, it seemed there were more days when she received help rather than giving it.
“I should at least buy the pet food properly!”
She clenches her fist and makes a resolution.
…Of course, it’s too late today, so tomorrow.
“Come to think of it, suddenly pet food, is the Professor planning to raise an animal?”
If he’s lonely even without raising an animal, I could…
‘No, no! What am I thinking right now!?’
The girl shakes her head to shake off her embarrassing fantasy, but her meeting with the wolf is.
A story for a little later.