Bloodstained beige bandages were wrapped round after round around her lower abdomen, arms, and thighs. The longsword that had only just been wiped clean was already sheathed and set gently within reach.
Margaret huddled beside the campfire, both hands wrapped around a cup of tea with leaves floating on its surface, giving off a fresh fragrance. Rising steam drifted over her face, which was still smeared with mud and dried blood, making her dazed expression all the more apparent.
At that moment, she no longer seemed like the team leader who possessed considerable authority, remained calm at all times, and seemed to have everything under control.
She was only an ordinary Adventurer who had just escaped death, barely surviving under the claws and fangs of savage Monsters.
Even now, none of what had happened earlier felt real to her.
It had clearly been nothing more than the most ordinary Investigation Quest, yet they had lost two precious teammates, and the enemy they had encountered was, beyond all expectations, a great Devil suspected to have come from Baator.
The other side had not even needed to truly make a move. Just the so-called "fodder" that being had summoned had already dragged their squad into a fatal quagmire.
Even now, after the battle had ended, with ample time and a clear mind to calm down and think, she still could not imagine any possibility of turning the situation around.
Closing her eyes and waiting for death, praying that after she died her soul could evade the Devils' search and find rest, rather than be made into a Soul Coin for reuse, forever circulating and sinking through the Hell Wasteland, seemed to have been all she could do.
Yet precisely in that situation, where no light could be seen and despair had reached