“Can we finally have peace?”

A man with blonde hair and sleepy eyes glances around his surroundings. They are currently in a room with all sides enclosed by a greyish white rocky structure. It's like they are in a cave.

His friend, always surrounded by floating scrolls and papers, directed the question towards no specific individual. His friend leans back against the chair in which he is sitting.

Another person sitting on the upper end of a circle table responds to his friend's query. Her attire is the most formal among them, a black and white suit. He doesn't know her current expression as a half metal mask adorns her face.

The only slightly out of place was her blue sky hair and her petite figure.

“If we all agree to uphold and adhere to our agreement, we will have long lasting peace.”

The speaker and his friend are among the ten qualified individuals seated around the round table. They are exerting immense pressure on their respective opponents.

Each of them is the leader of their respective group. Each of them has the power to end millions of people's lives. Each has their own goal.

The fact that they can resist the urge to kill each other right away demonstrates how important this meeting is to them.

Despite this, one chair is empty. We have positioned the eleventh and most important chair to be empty.

"My family and I will stop. I don’t want bloodshed to stain further in my Bloodlines.”

A man, so elusive that without intense staring, no one could sense his presence at all, spoke gravely. The man beside him, covered in blinding light, also voiced his thoughts.

“Our Order of Light has enough of the travesty and heresy, I will personally punish anyone who still wants to incite war.”

The man in light was the one who had the most powerful overall army strength here. His personal army, who are devout to the man.

“I will strip away your power and make you a normal person if it continues.”

The woman's voice is sharp and intimidating. She is relatively normal, as she simply wears a pilgrim-like robe and veil, leaving only her hands and eyes exposed.

It would be normal if he intentionally left out the fact that a giant golden eye was levitating behind her. It is gazing down at the vacant eleventh seat.

Each of the leaders, all voicing their agreement, most clearly wanted to stop, while one or two hinted at their unwillingness to stop.

This makes the right-hand man, like him, and the people standing behind the leaders nervous.

“Hahahaha, I am just joking. As long as you guys don’t take away my wealth and let me handle the economy, I will gladly stop.”

“Speaking of which, how about we now discuss how to divide our share?”

I barely woke up and managed to resist the stream of memories. Pain assaulted my spirit.

“I propose to exclude that guy from having a share since he didn’t appear in this meeting.”

His friend, who heard the disrespectful tone directed at the absent leader, replied back angrily.

"I will handle his share distribution, keep your greediness in check."

As I was doing this, the foreign memories briefly stopped playing in my head, but they soon resumed. They were urging me to abandon my resistance.

“We don’t want much. Give us control over Pocket Dimensions and the ‘Border’. We can negotiate the resources in those areas, but we must maintain direct control."

I don’t want to die, so, despite the pain, I keep rejecting these memories.

“Since we had temporarily finished the division of shares, how about changing our group name to commemorate this occasion? I propose renaming the Ten Thousand Religions as the Ten Thousand Cults.

The disrespect displayed by the name change is pretty clear. However, the party in question is unable to oppose the arbitrarily imposed name change, given their position as the biggest loser in the conflict.

They have reached the brink of an unconditional surrender.

He anticipated that the man would continue to humiliate the loser, but he didn't. The man changed his target.

“I have another suggestion, how about the Outcast changing to hmm… the Regular? Since you love protecting regular people so much.”

The man who covered himself with incalculable wealth humorously entertained foolish proposal. Saying such a thing would anger the second stron-

“That's a fantastic idea.”

The once-sharp women visibly relaxed and laughed audibly.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Even he, who is usually called an introvert by his friend could notice it was not a laugh of happiness.

He is sure almost everyone here has the same inexplicable feeling bubbling inside their hearts.

“Dear…”

The Bloodlines leader attempted to comfort her, but was interrupted.

“The Sins we have done were too great. From now on, we should do our best to atone and repent.”

“I should have done this much earlier…”

We can’t express ourselves by looking at the sight of her hiding her face with her hands.

He sighed and pondered.

Despite her being his enemy, no one could deny that without her personal power and desire, the war would likely continue, albeit with different reasons and agendas.

I stopped for a moment of rest, and tonnes of memories immediately slipped in. Learning from my mistake, I forced myself to keep on guard at all times.

Yet, the memories keep rushing in.

Now that we've completed our work, I have one final suggestion for the new era we're about to ushered. What should we call it? How about we connect it with the Irregulars that are now appearing around the world?”

Now he finally understands why his friend hates the leader of the Industry so much. He possesses the ability to effectively navigate social conversations.

So far, the man has managed to be successful in his diplomacy while infuriating people endlessly.

“Regular and Irregular. It's a match, considering Madam Regular is the one who contributed the most among us. Let’s name it the Age of Irregular!”

He is angered by the man's careless and annoying antics. He knows the man hates her, but repeatedly provoking her in this important meeting is just plain disgusting.

At that moment, the leader of Harmony who had been mainly silent so far, calmly spoke.

“I concur with the bloated pig. But Sister, I just wanted to say I agree not because of your name coincidence. I am concerned with the rise of these ‘Irregular’. I feel like they will transform our world into something unpredictable.”

Harmony leader took a puff of something unknown that she was smoking. A hazy grey mist encircles her entire body, obscuring her detailed appearance from an outside view.

All he could figure out was that she appeared to wear casual clothes, similar to what people would wear at home.

Its concerning. A neutral and indifferent person like her is paying attention to the Irregular and when on to suggest the new age name because of it too.

The other leaders consider her suggestion seriously and carefully. None of them are genuinely hostile towards her at this past age, most even owed favour for her help.

“I have a proposal for you Librarians weirdo. Investigate this anomaly thoroughly for us and compile the information so we can read it in the next meeting.”

"Additionally, this is my personal request, but please write it in a fantasy storytelling style for my personal report document."

Although he couldn’t see her face due to the thick mist, anyone with normal eyes could see the laughing gaze she sent to him and his friend.

If he had to nitpick about the Harmony leader, it was her habit of mocking people and being eccentric once in a while.

I feel like I am no longer myself. Just when I thought it was over for me, a single blob of infinite darkness appeared in front of me.

The meeting is over, and he is returning to the Library with his friend.

“Wilbert, strengthen your family ties with the Government and the Time. Both of them represent the new and old main powers, we should secure their favour for our safety in this upcoming new age.”

“This… friend, do you think another war will happen?”

“Yes. Despite losing nearly all of his alliance, the Third Sinner's intent towards Time remains undisguised. The Order of- the Safe Company greed for the ‘Border’ control. The Cults desire for their Gods pointless revival attem-”

The blob is coming closer, just a few steps away from my face. It is only about the size of my palm.

“Now that there is peace, how about you receive it now, Wilbert?”

It... He must mean that embarrassing title.

"Come on, man. Can't you change the title? You really want me to die a social death, don't you? I don't want that to be my legacy."

“What’s wrong with ‘Father of the Fairytale’? It complements your passion for folklore.”

“At least don’t include the Father…”

As it floated just an inch away from my head, the blob wiggled.

I… I finally recognised what the blob was.

I can feel it in the deepest part of my heart.

Seething hatred. I wanted to rip it apart, crush it into dust, blow it with fire until it was just ashes, and use the Library so people would forget its existence forever.

The blob opened its eye.

The memory of Wilbert, who tried to take control of me, shattered into pieces. The foreign memories inside my mind disappear.

My mental exhaustion for the past few days has reverted back to what it was last week.

The pupil of the eye quivers before its entire body disintegrates. It had done its purpose.

Make sure Wilbert, the Father of Fairytales, doesn't devour me.

~~~~~

My eyes opened. By now, the ceiling above me is familiar.

I don't recall any Wilbert-related memories from my dream, but I'm fairly certain that my excessive use of READ nearly caused my death.

Unlike the previous instance, where the READ originated as a newborn entity in the form of slime, Its will is just simple survival and propagation as a result Oddities in its environment.

It's truly different from last time, compared to the time when Adalbert let me borrow his READ. The cost of mental strength is abnormally high.

I considered the cause and came to a straightforward conclusion.

I had heard from the department head of Information, Astra, who once speculated that READ was formed from souls that were intentionally anchored inside the Library.

If the soul wasn't anchored, their life book would simply be a regular autobiography, and it wouldn't be a READ.

That was why, to create more READ, we needed to bring dying Irregulars to the Library. Just so it could devour the souls and trap them inside for us, Librarian to use.

At the end of the day, it's just speculation since Irregular work defies the law of nature itself, so it's hard to prove.

“There is also a chance that just more preserved data can be compiled if the Irregular is still alive.”

Regardless, the reason why it's so different than before is simple. It should because it's just a Copy created by another Irregular, making it much harder to use. The READ incorporates the complexity of genuine human will and desire.

The price must have multiplied since READ needs the Library connection to work, and the Copy makes it so as a middleman. We all know that middlemen take a significant cut in transactions.

When the Librarian's mental strength was less than what was needed to use the READ, they usually found themselves consuming the READ memories instead. The forced union of souls led to their demise.

This can be avoided if the READ and the Library have a favourable connection. Typically, individuals with similar bloodlines, personalities, and life experiences come together. Basically, a life compatibility.

Despite this benefit, it also means that when the Librarians are consumed, the likelihood of the READ being resurrected using their body increases significantly.

Given my incompatibility with Wilbert, my fate should have been death. There is no instance of a Librarian who managed to survive after being forced to consume a huge amount of foreign memories.

That eye.

It wiped out Wilbert memories from my mind, and with it, the 'me' is intact and whole.

It saved me again.

The Eye of Time.

It's always watching.