I Strongly Request an R Rating for Summoning

After hearing about the omurice, Zaza-san said, “If word gets out, everyone will want to eat it,” and prepared a small, secluded room for us.

Even so, the furniture was simple yet refined.
A large round table with a brand-new tablecloth.
Four slender, elegant chairs arranged around it.
At the edge of the room was a spacious sofa, and on the side chest, a vase held yellow flowers like gerberas mixed with small white blossoms.

There are countless rooms in the royal castle without fixed purposes, and he said this was one of those unused rooms.
But even if the flowers and tablecloth were prepared because we were using it, do all unused rooms really come furnished like this?
They probably do.

I set the dishes on the table: omurice, potato salad, and consommé soup.
Three portions, for me, Rei, and Zaza-san.
“It’s a privilege of being with a hero,” Zaza-san said with a playful grin, and my heart skipped a little.

He’s pretty smooth.

Since the head chef watched me cook in a corner of the kitchen, tonight’s staff meal was the same menu.
The mayonnaise I made for the potato salad was well received too.

It’s been a while since I made both ketchup and mayonnaise from scratch.
The phase when I got obsessed with homemade condiments while my kids were little finally paid off.
I stopped back then because store-bought was better and it took too much time, but honestly, I think I did a good job.

“Is this tomato sauce?”

“Yes, yes.
I simmered down the tomato sauce you gave me and added various seasonings.
It’s called ketchup.”

“So it’s based on the tomato sauce the kitchen usually uses?
I see… oh, this—”

Both of them brought their spoons to their mouths in silence.
Good.
They seem to like it.
They nodded occasionally, but their eating speed didn’t slow.
When men eat seriously because it’s delicious, it really gets to you.

Alright, my turn—
Just as I started eating, I heard a sniffle.

Rei’s eating speed hadn’t slowed, but tears were spilling down his face.

“…Huh?
Rei?
Is something spicy or painful?
That shouldn’t be—”

I quickly looked at Zaza-san, and he shouted with a flustered face, “It’s fine!
It’s delicious!”
Apparently he was shaken enough to drop polite speech.

“…Sniff…
I’m fine…
It’s, it’s really good…”

Um.
Uh…

Rei kept wiping his nose with a handkerchief, taking breaths, and continued eating the omurice in silence.
Homesickness?
But would a man this age really show it so openly…?

‘Zaza-san, was today’s training particularly harsh?’

‘N-no, it was the same as usual…’

“I’m s-sorry…
I’m f-fine…”

Even though we tried to lower our voices, the room was small, so our agitation and whispers reached him anyway.
Rei’s tears fell faster.

“It must be the taste of home, right!?
It’s gentle and nostalgic!
Even I feel that way, and it’s my first time eating it!”

Zaza-san tried to keep his voice bright.
But Rei had already covered his eyes with both hands, still gripping his spoon.
He made no sound.
Large drops just kept falling from his clenched fists.

U-uhhhhh.

It’s nothing more than intuition, really.

I stood up, knelt beside Rei, and looked up at his face.
I couldn’t see his eyes through his tightly pressed fists, but—

“Rei-kun, how old are you really?”

“…I…
I just turned ten…”

Of course.
I wasn’t the only one whose appearance didn’t match their age.

I wrapped my right arm around Rei—no, Rei-kun’s large back, and gently stroked the back of his left hand resting on his knee.
Tap, tap.
Like when I used to put my kids to sleep.
With my original body, this would’ve been hard while half-crouching, but with my current body, standing upright puts me at just the right height.
I’m stretching a bit, though.

“Kazuha-chan is so grown-up…
But me…”

The tears that seemed to have settled began spilling again.

“No!
Rei-kun!
I don’t look my age either!
Right, Zaza-san!”

“T-that’s right!
Kazuha-san is really old!”

Don’t say “really.”
It’s true, but still.

“Really…?”

“Really!
Forty-five!
See!?
That’s why I can cook and seem reliable!”

“…Mom was thirty-two.
So you’re older than my mom.”

Oof.

Of course my kids are adults, so that makes sense, but being told that by someone who looks almost thirty still hurts.

Zaza-san clutched his chest with a fist too.

“So…
I thought Kazuha-chan was about my age.”

“Y-yeah.”

I heard a sound like something exploding from Zaza-san’s direction.

That explains it.
Rei-kun was friendly because I looked closest to his age.
In reality, he should’ve been the youngest.
The oldest looked like the youngest, and the youngest looked like the oldest.

Zaza-san said that in this world, people my apparent age still live with their parents.
That’s true in our world too.
Rei-kun is at the age where eating dinner at home is normal.
Of course he properly notifies people about meals.
If he eats at a friend’s or relative’s place, he’s always told to say so.

I stroked his soft hair, free of any styling product, and leaned my cheek against his.
On the first day it was neatly styled, but from the next day on, it was freshly washed.
Ten-year-olds don’t even worry about bedhead.

I’m still not used to my shifted center of gravity either.
Rei-kun bumping his head on the return counter wasn’t because he didn’t know his width.
He probably just isn’t used to his new size yet.
During training he’s tense, but when relaxed, he moves with his original sense of scale.

It’s been one week since the summoning.

He was suddenly taken away from his parents, and no one treated him like a child.
The people of this world are kind, but kindness toward adults and kindness toward children are different things.

Come to think of it, on the first night, the maid asked, “Can you sleep alone?”
She even said she could stay by my side until I fell asleep.

That kindness should have been directed at Rei-kun.

“…I’ll eat the omurice.”

“Yeah.
Let’s eat together.”

After exchanging a look with Zaza-san, we returned to our seats and resumed the meal.

The omurice Rei-kun wanted was probably his mom’s omurice.
It’s a popular dish kids love.
I can only hope the taste was at least a little close.

“Thank you for the meal.
It was really good.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Huh?” Zaza-san looked puzzled, so I explained, “That’s how we respond in my country.
It’s what the cook says.”

“That makes you feel like you need to deny it.
It was anything but unwelcome.”

“I don’t actually think it was unwelcome.
I served it with full confidence.”

When I joked lightly, Rei-kun smiled a little.

“It was really good.
Will you make it again?”

“What should I make next time?
Do you like hamburg steak?”

“I love it!”

“I’d love to join you again as well!”

“I get it.
Hehe, both of you are crazy about me.”

Rei-kun laughed, shrugging his shoulders, and for a moment he overlapped with my son at that age.

“At first, I was happy I could be like Dad.”

Rei-kun sank deep into the sofa, his long legs awkwardly stretched out.
I sat close enough that our shoulders touched, while Zaza-san pulled a chair from the table and sat facing us.

“That suit was your dad’s?”

“Yeah.
It was the same as Dad’s.
He’s cool.
My dad.
About as cool as Zaza-san.”

Zaza-san widened his eyes at being compared, which was endearing.
So that’s why he looked so happy when I told him Zaza-san praised him.
Rei-kun must really love his dad.

“…He’s probably much younger than me.
But I’m honored.”

“Really?”

“Zaza-san…
To kids Rei-kun’s age, anyone over thirty probably looks like an old man.”

“I-I see…
An honor… I guess?”

Still, I don’t know how the system works, but skipping twenty years of growth…
That’s just too cruel.
The summoning system.
Rei-kun himself probably hasn’t fully realized it yet, but—

Zaza-san looked pale too.
He tried so earnestly to be considerate toward me, thinking I was mature.
Now that he realizes the cruelty, his pain must be magnified all the more.

“Rei-san, is training hard?”

He’d voluntarily stopped using “-dono.”
Probably to meet Rei-kun at eye level.
Even so, he couldn’t drop the “-san.”
That’s Zaza-san for you.

“Nope.
It’s fun.”

“…We’re planning to begin field training soon.
Hunting monsters in the forest near the castle town, to get everyone used to it.”

“Yeah.
You told us before.
I remember.”

“I think it would be better to delay Rei-san’s participation.”

“…What about everyone else?”

Rei-kun clenched his fist tightly.

“Kazuha-san, given how different appearances and real ages have been, I want to confirm the other heroes’ real ages as a precaution.
If they match their appearances, then we can proceed as planned.”

“No.
Why?
I can do it.”

“…Rei-kun.”

“Shota-kun and Yukihiro-san can do it, and I won’t lose to them.
I can do the same.
I can do it if they can.”

This child probably suppresses himself most of the time.

Having worn an adult face for so long, maybe he’s the type who silently keeps thinking things through.

If he acts like an adult, if he can do what adults do,
Like he’s saying now, he’s been telling himself that all week.

“Rei-san, hunting is different from training so far.
Even if they’re monsters, it means taking lives.
Killing.
Kazuha-san told me that in your world, ordinary people don’t hunt.
In this world too, while it varies by region, hunting is rarely experienced or allowed before the age of thirteen.”

“But!
If I hadn’t told my real age, I could’ve gone, right!?
I would’ve gone hunting with everyone, right!?
I can do it!
I can do what everyone else can!
Age doesn’t matter if I don’t say it!
No one can tell!
You couldn’t tell!”

Rei-kun straightened his body from the sofa, pulled in his stretched legs, and slammed the sofa with his clenched fist.
It was unmistakably the movement of a ten-year-old.
Yet his angry voice rang low, like that of a grown man.

“Hey, Rei-kun?”

“Kazuha-chan, I can do it.
You thought I was strong too, right?”

“Rei-kun, the strength Zaza-san is talking about isn’t that kind of strength.”

Why are his eyes so desperate?

Why do they look like he has to cling to this?

“I’m stronger than Dad now!
I can do it!”

“Rei-san.”

“No!
That’s not fair!
You summoned me without asking!
And now you say this!
That’s not fair!”

Zaza-san sharply inhaled.

This is bad.
Not now.

“Hey, Rei-kun.”

“No!
I can do it!”

I held his face between both hands and turned him toward me.

“Yeah.
Rei-kun was strong.
We all thought you were an adult.”

“…Yeah.”

“Everyone treated you like an adult, and you kept an adult face the whole time.”

“…Yeah.”

“That’s amazing.
You did great.”

“…Yeah… ugh.”

“Rei-kun, you really are doing your best.
You’re doing so well.”

Large tears spilled out again.

I gently brushed his bangs aside and stroked his cheek.
Slowly, hesitantly, he buried his face into my shoulder.

Ah.
With this body, I can’t fully wrap him up.

He’s still at the age where he should be bundled up like in a blanket.

The large body Rei-kun was rebuilt into, and my small body, both get in the way of protecting him.

“Hey, that first night…
Were you able to sleep alone?”

“…Yeah.
I’m fine.
I always sleep alone in my room.”

“I see.
That’s impressive.
My son couldn’t sleep alone at your age.”

“…How old is your kid, Kazuha-chan?”

The tension in his shoulders eased a little.

“He’s grown up.
Twenty-four.”

“An adult.”

“Yeah.
But you might be more adult-like, Rei-kun.
You’re polite and kind.
You tell people when food is good.”

“Does Kazuha-chan’s kid not say it?”

“He doesn’t.”

“He’s an adult but that’s weird.”

“Right?
Weird.”

Rei-kun chuckled softly.
I could still feel tears soaking my shoulder.

I gently stroked the back of his head and lightly patted his back.

“It’s okay.”

The words Rei-kun kept repeating earlier, I now whispered by his ear.

“It’s okay.”

What needs to be implemented isn’t otherworld culture.
It’s an age limit on summoning.

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