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I never imagined that I’d get to meet them this soon. After all, it happened just moments after I’d thought about it.

Upon seeing me, Fumitsuki froze in place and Fujiwara went to talk to her, after which Fumitsuki whispered something to him. Then, Fujiwara glanced at me, approached me, and initiated a conversation.

“Hello.”
“What is it?” I responded.
“Fuji… Michihisa, don’t go up and speak to people like that!”

Fujiwara’s casual greeting left me unsure how to respond. Fumitsuki, in turn, seemed to have noticed this and promptly went on to scold Fujiwara.

I assumed that the reason she used his first name was because commoners in this world lacked surnames. It was likely that Fumitsuki had come to this conclusion by using Appraisal of the people in the area. She’d likely appraised every single person she’d come across.

Gathering information was crucial. In this world where skills were a rare occurrence, unless someone was royalty or of similar status they were unlikely to get appraised. Whatever the case, it remained an embarrassing technique that could reveal someone’s secrets.

“My name is Michihisa. This one here is Yume. What’s your name?”

Hmm… Should I tell them my name, I wondered. At the end of the day, Fumitsuki would just end up seeing it anyway so I figured there was no point in hiding it. However, there was another problem. I wasn’t sure how I should address my former classmates. I wasn’t sure if I should be more formal since they were older, or if I should stick to speaking normally.

I pondered on it for a bit and in the end found everything somewhat annoying, so I opted to be more formal. In reality, it wasn’t so much out of respect as a desire to stay out of trouble.

“It’s Finis.”
“Nice to meet you, Fini.”¹　
“It’s Finis.”
“So, Fini…”
“It’s Finis.”
“So, Finis…”
“Yes, what is it?”

I couldn’t stand being babied by a former classmate. Although I didn’t necessarily hate being called nicknames, I still felt quite strongly about my death and it felt as if I was being made fun of.

“Are you adventuring by yourself, Finis?”
“My skill forces me to. So I don’t accept invitations.”

They likely assumed I was an adventurer due to the bow on my back. Or maybe because they appraised my status.

Regardless, the way they approached me didn’t give off the feeling that they were trying to invite me, however, this was the only way to continue the conversation on my end.

“More importantly, what’s wrong with that girl? She suddenly started staring at me just now.”
“Yeah, that’s why I came to talk to you,” Fujiwara said.
“What?”

I couldn’t understand what these two were trying to do. I speculated that Fumitsuki had felt something after seeing my status. However, that would be strange since my status wasn’t anything special.

I opted to wait, figuring once they explained themselves, I would eventually understand. It was at this moment that Fujiwara’s face suddenly turned serious. I really don’t prefer having a serious conversation here, I pondered.

“Finis. Just what are you?”

(What’s with that line? Why does he seem so confident that there’s something? I managed to deceive the crystal with Camouflage, but could it be that it doesn’t work on Appraisal? No, wait, if they could see through it then they wouldn’t even ask in the first place. After all, Demigod is written right there.)

It was clear that they were doubting me, which is why I chose to respond in such a manner.

“Your average traveling town girl, why?”
“Normal town girls don’t have a bow like that.”
“A hunt-loving girl who pretends to be an average traveling town girl.”
“That’s…” Fujiwara said, looking at me with a displeased expression.

Serves you right, I thought. After all, this wasn’t what he wanted to hear. Because he was unconvinced by my explanation just now, it could only indicate that he detected something indiscernible about me.

“Also, given that you’re asking me such direct questions, I assume you’re prepared to answer my question. For instance, why did you change the color of your hair and eyes, or what’s up with all of your skills?”

I could’ve also asked them why their names were different and why they weren’t in the castle, but those would undoubtedly raise their guard so I decided not to.

With the information they’d given me until now, I believed this was a good starting point. And, besides, I didn’t want them to panic.

“Why, you ask…”
“We shouldn’t be holding this conversation here. How about we change the location to a restaurant?”

I suggested and led the two of them away. They followed me silently as we made our way to my favorite restaurant.

◇◇◇

“Pops, do you have a free private room?”
“Hey, Fini. Seems like those two are the promising adventurers. As for a private room… Yeah, I have one in the far back.”
“Perfect. I’ll take three servings of the usual!”
“The usual? You’ve only been here a few days, kid. I’m on it.”

We went into the restaurant I was familiar with and rented a private room. At first, I’d questioned the existence of private rooms in a dining establishment, but it seemed quite profitable to have them with adventurers roaming around.

There likely wasn’t a lack of strategy meetings that required privacy.

“You are very close.”
“Pfu…”

I couldn’t help but let out a chuckle at Fujiwara’s formal way of speaking. It seems a demigod was still a demigod even in a child’s body. Fumitsuki, on the other hand, was as frightened as before.

“You can speak normally. I’m not going to eat you or anything. You don’t have a lot of meat on you, and besides, you don’t look tasty.”
“NOOOO!”
“I told you I won’t eat you.”

Fumitsuki jumped up in fear at my harmless joke. Even though I realized I might have scared her a bit too much. I couldn’t help but wonder if it had been the same in class.

“Fini, you here?”
“Yes. I’ll be right there.” I said and went to open the room’s door to the pops.

What he held in his hands were plates of grilled meat. The kind of meat varied depending on the day, or rather, on what I hunted. Pops was a client of mine. While many adventurers hunted monsters, those who hunted animals were few.

Besides, hunting animals and hunting monsters were fundamentally different. Monsters would actively attack us, while animals would flee, save for a few exceptions.

Adventurers were great at dealing with prey that attacked them, but few were skilled enough to hunt prey that would flee. However, it was to be expected given that most of them fought using swords or spears.

Furthermore, some monsters could be eaten, negating the necessity of actively hunting animals. I’d even heard that Orcs weren’t that bad. However, this didn’t eliminate the demand for animal meat.

Although Dragon meat was tasty, one couldn’t help but crave wild boar from time to time. That was just how a human’s hunger worked. Therefore, requests would occasionally come in, even if they weren’t urgent, and if the hunt was successful, the meat could be sold in a restaurant or butcher shop.

Pops had informed me that livestock were frequently attacked by monsters and that it was difficult to raise them if they weren’t in a secure location near the royal capital. And so he gave me the chance to enjoy these meats after hunting them, so I continued to visit regularly. After all, game meat was delicious.

And today I’d brought him the wild boar I’d killed during my encounter with the Crazed Bear.

1. (TL/N: Here Fujiwara refers to Finis as Finis Chan, which is how Japanese refer to younger children or when they’re using a nickname for someone. As such I opted for the nickname Fini, rather than using Little Finis, or Finis Chan)