Ria stared at her father with an expression of fear at his words. "What do you mean, Dad?"
"My Tide of Samsara was not as airtight as I thought it was in its scrambling of the SOS from Planet Pinky," he spoke with a serious tone of voice. "It let slip a single part of the message that the arakai managed to decipher. A single word. 'Key.'"
Ria's expression grew pale as she realized that that one keyword made her existence as the key to the Universalis Mensis known to the arakai.
"Now, the good news is that they have no idea where the garbled SOS came from, only that it came from within the Orion Star Strand," Rui said solemnly. "The bad news is that the Virus Faction is extremely motivated to find this key because they believe it refers to exactly what it does. You. Now they're on the lookout."
Ria's expression stiffened. "…That's scary. If they get even a single clue pointing them towards me, then they might eventually find me."
