"Roland?"
Misaki Shokuhou stared in astonishment at the boy who had picked her up in his arms without her noticing, a faint smile on his face.
"Why are you here... I didn't even send out a distress signal. You shouldn't have been able to locate me even if you wanted to."
"When such a strong thought keeps calling my name in the middle of the night, wouldn't it be stranger if I didn't notice? As for your location, once I sensed you, wasn't a glance at the heavens enough to make it obvious?"
"Huh?!"
Misaki Shokuhou's eyes widened. She understood every word Roland said, yet put together, they left her completely lost.
Did silently repeating his name in her mind count as calling him?
But however many questions she had, this clearly wasn't the time to dwell on them.
She pointed at the attackers at the alley entrance, who had stirred after their earlier setback and had now regrouped.
"Careful! These people are desperate. They really came here intending to kill!"
The Usurper's Spear's equipment specialized in countering mental abilities, but it wasn't so cheap that anyone below an Esper could deal with it casually.
Roland's ability was recorded in The Library as unidentified, its true nature yet to be discerned, but it was a fact that he had only acquired it recently.
Since he wasn't a natural-born Gemstone and hadn't undergone systematic ability development, being able to protect himself against enemies determined to kill would already be impressive. But with a burden like her in tow, the odds would probably be against both of them.
If one of them had to be sacrificed, it should be her.
"If you can't manage, just put me down and leave. These people mobilized specifically to hunt me down. If you stop getting