"Woorff" (do you understand or not?).
"..."
'Haaa~ what the hell, I'm even waiting! No, wait.'
The only response Cassiel got from the she-wolf was a nod of her head, as if she didn't understand what he meant.
But, when Cassiel thought to that point, he realized something: while the she-wolf didn't fully understand what he was saying, she clearly sensed that he was trying to communicate something to her.
Cassiel, who was coming to understand what this place was all about and, from what he had heard earlier, deduced that this she-wolf had some degree of intelligence, but he thought again:
'And what would she gain by knowing that?'
Again, Cassiel was convinced that he was doing foolish and pointless things, just because he had nothing to do.
He had already surveyed his surroundings and, rather than in a cage, he was now in a small room.
There was a mirror on one of the walls of this place; Cassiel supposed that, obviously, as test subjects, they were watching him and he knew a magic that allowed one to only be able to see one side.
Behind that mirror, probably, were the guys in robes, pointing, as always, in their books and boastfully talking about their progress.
The more he thought about everything he had experienced during these days, the more the desire to kill them grew in him, although reality hit him and he understood that he could do nothing at this moment and if he expressed it with intentions he might receive a pulse of pain.
He looked again at the mother and son pair. The fact that the wolf, which is now his body, barely had any mana meant that they were not simple animals, as he had thought, but magical beasts.
That also included both wolves, in front of him, and magical beasts grew strong over time and by devouring each other.
That was the logic he had: to him, that was basic information, though he still wasn't sure it worked.
Why? Because he wasn't sure it was in his world. The existence of other worlds, though unproven, had been raised in the theories of many wizards who studied special magic and left theories about the possibility of more worlds.
Cassiel, observing everything around him that was so unfamiliar and strange, recalled those studies and considered it a great possibility in his mind.
Now, whether or not it was another world, there was the possibility that his logic worked and, becoming stronger would equate to having more mana within him.
'And if I try?'
That possibility took root in his mind as he watched the mother and son wolf pair.
"Grrrrr."
At that moment, as Cassiel pondered, the she-wolf - who remained wary of him and kept her distance - stood up and began to growl at him, as she placed the pup behind her; clearly, she was ready to fight and defend her son.
'Humm... interesting,'
Cassiel thought, watching him with interested eyes. The she-wolf seemed to detect his intent and reacted immediately.
He found it somewhat fascinating; he himself stood up and looked at the she-wolf, who seemed ready to attack as soon as he approached.
He evaluated it carefully. At the moment, it seemed to be an ordinary animal. The fact that they both had almost no mana, despite being adults, indicated that they had grown up in captivity.
This meant that the two might be on equal footing in terms of fighting: she had no experience in killing and he lacked experience attacking as a wolf, while the pup was too young to influence the fight.
Cassiel thought about all that, understanding the situation and his chances, coming to a conclusion.
'It's not worth it.'
In the end, Cassiel decided to simply give up. It wasn't worth it. First, even though the she-wolf didn't seem to be experienced, she could still hurt or even kill him.
Second, he hadn't forgotten where he was and he was sure that the guys in white coats wouldn't stay still, since they hadn't brought him here with that intention.
And mainly, if the two of them had the same minuscule amount of mana, he probably wouldn't gain anything by killing them.
In the end, it wasn't worth it, and Cassiel simply dismissed the intentions of doing anything to them.
He simply lay back down on the ground and looked at the aggressive mother. She seemed to be starting to calm down.
Cassiel thought that, now that they were sufficiently intelligent beasts at an early stage, understanding of will and intentions was finely tuned combining with their natural bestial instincts.
Now that she understood that he had no intention of harming them she returned to her previous state. Still, she remained cautious and was more strict in not allowing the puppy to approach Cassiel.
..
.
Days passed and Cassiel looked impassively at the puppy and its mother. After all, there was nothing else to do.
Besides getting lost in his thoughts, he had already drawn several conclusions and his possible fate, but until then, he could only sit idle.
Luckily there were no more painful experiments, but now he was simply forced to observe this mother and son pair.
It had been several days since he had seen the guys in white coats, and he could only see the guards with electric batons every time they brought them food.
He didn't even think about the possibility of attacking them, as he knew that would cause great pain to come over him and possibly kill him.
Honestly that thought that it wouldn't be such a bad thing was somewhat prevalent the first few days.
However, for some reason, Cassiel began to think that he didn't want that. He had had a lot of time lately to reflect on many things and he thought that, whether it was a punishment for his previous life or not, being reborn as a wolf was his reality.
It was a new life. Whatever it was, it was a new beginning for him, something he had always wanted.
He had thrown his life away once before, and one of the things Cassiel hated most was making the same mistake, and even more so if he did it on purpose.
Not to mention that he still harbored a cold but smoldering grudge towards the guys in white coats, and Cassiel would definitely live up to it.
Unbeknownst to him, in a way, Cassiel was rekindling something that had once been extinguished.
That flame that, even as the strongest fire user, he could never control.
It was small, but that small flame began to burn inside him waiting for the moment to become a big fire.
..
.
More and more days passed. Perhaps because he did nothing and had no intention of doing so, the wolf cub and even his wary mother slowly began to get closer.
The pup liked to growl at him and jump on him. Cassiel simply let it do whatever it wanted.
Only when he felt the puppy was too annoying, he would shake him and growl low to make him go away.
That was repeated a few times and Cassiel genuinely thought he was a tenacious little wolf... to the point where he found it a bit amusing.
Their interactions became something he could waste a bit of time with.
"Woorff!"
Once again, he growled the puppy to leave with his mother, who was now more calmly observing their interactions. Still, she wasn't getting as close to Cassiel as the puppy was.
" Arf!"
But oddly enough, he didn't back down today. he seemed to be challenging him instead of running away in fear.
'hee~ So you got courage. Now you want to rebel, huh?'
Cassiel thought, amused by the pup's action. He mulled it over for a moment, took this matter a bit more seriously and thought about how beasts used to correct the rebellious behavior of their young.
After all, if he let this little wolfie gain confidence, he would literally start trampling him like a natural.
'Well, whatever. Let's show this hairball who's boss'.
At that moment, Cassiel got up and stood in front of the little wolf. He adopted an intimidating posture.
The little wolf, upon seeing him, began to show hesitation, but it was not enough to break his rebellious posture. However, in the next moment....
"Wooofff!"
"Whiiiine!"
He growled menacingly and made a feint of attack towards him neck. He obviously wasn't planning to attack him in earnest, but in addition to stopping the little wolf's rebellion, he wanted to see the mother's reaction to what seemed like an aggressive act.
So he turned his attention to her.
But, oddly enough, she was watching him calmly.
'Hummm... As I thought, that she-wolf seems to understand my intentions? Are all wolves like that or is it just her? Humm... It could also be because of the experiment.'
Cassiel thought about this. If he followed the same logic here as in his previous world, he understood what the researchers wanted to achieve.
Apparently, they wanted to make the weak beasts intelligent enough to subordinate and use them.
In general, weak beasts tended to be instinct-driven creatures with no reasoning whatsoever, making them impossible to tame or train, even if they were raised from birth.
Only very powerful beasts can attain intelligence, but those same beasts would not willingly allow themselves to be tamed either.
Cassiel came to the conclusion that they were experimenting with the weaker beasts, testing if they could tame them at an early stage and then turn them into weapons or resources for battle? Or for war, if there was one going on.
This was Cassiel's take on the whole situation. He had been a researcher himself. After all you don't get to the top of magic by strength alone.
The truth was that he was surprised at how everything was working out to this point. Obviously, the engineering and magical technology of this world was far more advanced than it had ever been in his previous world.
Research was far, far ahead of what he understood at the time.
He didn't even understand what it was that was giving him a headache. This also caught his attention.
His curiosity as a wizard was piqued at the thought of the possibilities this world offered, but, first and foremost, his priority was still to escape from this place.