Somewhere far, far away, there exists a magical land. This land is full of mysteries, ruins of a civilization never seen but always present. It's full of monsters, both large and small, animal, vegetable and mineral, all living together somewhat peacefully. It's full of beautiful landscapes, hills and trees, frosty forests and expansive blue oceans. It's full of both light and dark, fire and water, and every inch of it pulses and thrums with magical potential so great that, if anyone tried to harness it, it would completely consume them.

This land's name is Fairune. The world where imagination is reality.

And of course, as every good world full of mysteries does, it has a hero.

This hero's name has been lost to everyone, even herself, so she simply goes by Hope Girl. It's the most apt description of who and what she is. She has saved this land and its wide variety of inhabitants from destruction time and time again. Sometimes, the entity running the world goes haywire and needs to be reset. Others, she's saving one of her only friends in this strange, strange world.

She no longer remembers how she came here. Nor does she really care.

What she does know is that, despite the companionship of Layla, the Fairies, and even the Codex (annoying as it may be at times), she is profoundly lonely.

And not just a regular sort of loneliness, either. She can't solve this just by going to sit with her loved ones for a little while. She can't resolve it by having a peaceful talk with someone. And she sure as hell can't solve it by stabbing it (as she tends to do with all of her other problems).

No. This was not a problem she knew how to solve.

And, as this world's resident problem solver... it scared her.

Yes, she, who faced off against dragons, machines, giant insects and even literal gods, was scared. She knew that being the only one who could wield The Sword placed her in a tier far above her peers, but she didn't want that. She didn't want to be better than everyone. She wanted to be a normal person, to sit back, have a family, go to sleep in a world full of life that she could talk to. Not... whatever this was.

This world was a paradise. But that came with the drawback that it was completely empty. A void. No life to speak of anywhere but the Tower. Even the knights that patrolled the various floors were simply machines, doing as they were programmed to do by whoever it was who built them ever so long ago.

She wished that she could meet that person face to face, and congratulate them on the fact that their automatons lived longer than they did. At least she would finally have someone new to talk to.

For a world that seemed so full of life, it sure felt dead.

For once, she stopped. She had been walking for a long time, she realised. She knew where she was, of course, but she hadn't stopped walking for a very long time. She didn't remember how long ago it was that she took a break from everything and just... sat down.

Carefully, and without moving too fast, she put the Sword of Hope down onto the grass. She took off her buckler and leaned it against a tree. She reached down, took off her boots, feeling the cool air on her legs before she plunged them into the fast-moving water of the river.

And for once in her existence (at least as long as she could remember), she lay on her back and stared into the bright blue sky, before quietly closing her eyes and falling asleep in the shade of a tree.

A while later, she came to. She felt... refreshed. She wondered how long she had been asleep. It was dark now. She had seen the Fields dark before, but she had never stopped to appreciate it.

She wondered if her friends were looking for her.

And with that, she realised that she was not laying on the grass anymore. Her head was on something soft and warm.

Slowly shifting, who should she see but Layla. Her Layla, the one from this side, leaned against the tree, fast asleep, with her formerly-asleep saviour's head laying in her lap.

She could hear her breathing. It was soft, peaceful. She silently wondered if she also sounded like that.

She could hear the wind whistling through the trees, the water rushing past the rocks, the ever-present pulse of magic that flooded the world, even the deep, thrumming power emanated by the Tower. It all came together to form a silent chorus, filling her mind with the sounds of the night, playing a song only she could hear. A new song.

And it was beautiful. It was so beautiful. She could hardly keep herself from starting to cry, as the soundless melody of nothingness filled her heart with a new revelation: she wasn't alone. There were people here, people who cared about her, people she could talk to. And it meant more to her than the entire world ever did.

With that, she finally allowed herself to shed a tear of joy. She didn't care who saw it. She had bottled her tears in for too long. She was a hero. She was meant to be brave.

And brave people weren't meant to cry, at least not in front of others.

But that was the thing. She wasn't brave. She felt fear. She backed down. She ran away. She had feelings that she let get the better of her on several occasions. She was as human as everyone else.

She wasn't brave. But she was a hero. And she knew that her friends would stand by her side no matter what.

So yes, she was alone in this world. But she wasn't lonely.

And really, what more could she ask for than that?