Goblin Library - Chapter 116

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 116.

Early that morning, Oh Mi-hee had filled herself with ten fried eggs at home before opening YouTube on her phone.
“What should I eat today?”
She hadn’t planned what to eat in advance. Her daily routine was to search YouTube for restaurants each morning, find a menu that looked delicious, and then head out to eat it.
As Oh Mi-hee scrolled through restaurants on her phone, a small establishment caught her eye.
“A set meal restaurant.”
A set meal restaurant was a place that sold rice, side dishes, and soup without any specific main menu.
The appeal of changing side dishes daily made it a frequent haunt for office workers.
In the video, a female mukbang creator was enjoying a set meal at the restaurant.
The side dish selection was ordinary.
The basic sides were stir-fried fish cake, stir-fried potatoes, kimchi, and seasoned cucumber, while the main options were stir-fried squid, stir-fried pork, and bean sprout kimchi soup.
Since the squid and pork were mains, you could only choose one.
“Usually when you go to a restaurant, even with many side dishes, your hand reaches for some and not others. But here, all the sides taste good. Even though there aren’t many varieties, they’re all delicious with nothing to skip. Especially this seasoned cucumber—it seems they mix it fresh to order because there’s not a drop of water, making it incredibly crisp. Ah! It’s just like the pickled vegetables you get at a kalguksu restaurant.”
As the female creator spoke with a smile while eating the side dishes, a sheet of kimchi pancake arrived at the table.
“We made this for our staff, so please try a piece.”
“Is this complimentary?”
“I wouldn’t call it a service exactly. We made it for ourselves anyway, so we’re just sharing. Ah, but I should mention—if you watch the broadcast and come here asking for kimchi pancake, we won’t give it to you. You should come expecting not to receive it.”
“So I’m getting special treatment? You’re not going to give me extra attention just because it’s a broadcast, right?”
The man laughed at the creator’s words.
“It’s not special treatment just for you. We gave it to all the customers here right now. I’m just mentioning it preemptively in case anyone comes complaining that we didn’t give them any after watching the broadcast.”
“This is the first time I’ve met a restaurant owner who tells people upfront that they won’t get something.”
“I think it’s better to say you won’t give something and then give it, rather than say you will and then don’t. Of course, there’s no guarantee we’ll give it. Only if we have it.”
“The owner has a funny way of talking.”
As Oh Mi-hee murmured this, the creator seemed to like it too and laughed.
“Thank you for the meal. Ah, could I get one more order of the stir-fried pork? And could you make it a bit spicier this time? Like spicy chicken feet.”
“Understood.”
After their conversation, the creator finished her rice, paid, and left the restaurant.
Once outside, the creator spoke again.
“This restaurant customizes the food to your preferences when you order. Ah, and one more thing. When there are no customers, if they have the ingredients, they’ll make whatever you want. Since it caters to office workers, it gets so busy from noon to 1:30 that you have to wait in line. So I’d recommend going a bit after that time. And finally, as we all know, everyone’s taste is different. So while it was delicious enough for me to recommend, I can’t guarantee how it’ll taste to others!”
The creator finished with a playful flourish and showed the restaurant she’d just left on screen.
“The restaurant I visited today was none other than… Han-kki Restaurant.”

「Han-kki Restaurant」

Oh Mi-hee stared at the close-up sign that ended the broadcast for a moment, then checked the time.
“I’m going there for lunch today.”

***

“Huh? Han-kki Restaurant, then.”
The Dung Carrier Goblin muttered absently while reading a book, and Yu Tae-poong asked him.
“Do you know that place?”
“I do.”
The Dung Carrier Goblin turned to Yu Tae-poong and spoke.
“Remember when I mentioned there are restaurants I know that cater to Spirit Servants?”
“I remember.”
“This restaurant is one of them.”
“Ah… you said it was in Gangwon Province before.”
“I have a good restaurant in Gangwon Province, but there are quite a few such places scattered about—in Seoul, Jeolla Province, Gyeongsang Province, and elsewhere.”
The Dung Carrier Goblin spoke while reading the book.
“But has the owner of Han-kki Restaurant changed?”
“Why do you ask?”
“From what I know, the owner here was an elderly grandmother like Ok-ja. But according to the book, it says a young man now.”
The Dung Carrier Goblin murmured, gazing into the distance.
“Did the previous owner die?”
“Perhaps they retired and passed it on.”
Yu Tae-poong spoke as if it were nothing, but the Dung Carrier Goblin shook his head.
“That’s a restaurant where you can’t retire while alive.”
“What? What do you mean by that?”
A restaurant where you can’t retire while alive? I wondered where such a place could exist.
Wouldn’t people simply retire if they became ill or too old to run the restaurant?
The Dung Carrier Goblin explained to the bewildered Yu Tae-poong.
“That place serves food to ghosts.”
“Ghosts? Actual ghosts?”
Yu Tae-poong tilted his head and spoke.
“But you serve food to Jeonjujeon and his kind too.”
After all, they were feeding Spirit Servants, so I wondered if that place was really any different from Jeonjujeon.
The Dung Carrier Goblin explained.
“It’s different from that. Creatures like goblins can be seen by humans—they have form and appearance. That’s why Ok-ja can serve us food, and we can eat among people. But ghosts cannot be seen by humans except for shamans or the rare few with spiritual sensitivity. So ghosts cannot eat at regular restaurants.”
“Then ghosts can’t eat?”
“There’s ritual food offerings, as you know. They can eat those—the kind set out at funeral homes or shamans’ houses, or food people leave out for others to eat. But restaurant food has an owner, so ghosts cannot consume it.”
The Dung Carrier Goblin pointed to the book and spoke.
“JS created these restaurants in the Living World for ghosts who can’t even get ritual offerings. They’re called Underworld Restaurants.”
“Underworld Restaurants?”
The Dung Carrier Goblin smiled at Yu Tae-poong, whose expression had turned subtly uneasy at the somewhat ominous name.
“That restaurant in Gangwon Province is one of the Underworld Restaurants.”
“So there’s more than one Underworld Restaurant?”
“It’s not just one. With such a large population, there are plenty of deaths. If spirits crowded into a single small restaurant, where would there be room for anyone to eat?”
“That’s true.”
“There’s one in each of the eight provinces across the nation, one in Jeju Island too… and one in each of the metropolitan cities.”
“That’s quite a few.”
“Considering all the spirits in the nation, it’s not many at all.”
The Dung Carrier Goblin added to the explanation.
“And the Han-kki Restaurant mentioned here is the only Underworld Restaurant in Seoul.”
“Seoul has a population of ten million, and there’s only one of these? How does this single shop manage to feed all those spirits?”
“It might seem strange, but with so many funeral homes and shamans around, they manage to take care of themselves well enough.”
“I see.”
Yu Tae-poong, who had been nodding, laughed.
“But don’t spirits not need to eat? They’re already dead, so they won’t die again just from not eating, right?”
“They won’t die from not eating. But when they do eat, it brings joy and tastes good.”
“Ah, so that’s why they eat. Just like the Goblins.”
“There’s that too… but actually, spirits feel hunger.”
“They feel hunger?”
“They won’t die from not eating, but if they go a long time without ritual food offerings, they feel hunger. So spirits generally make sure to eat their meals.”
“I see.”
Yu Tae-poong looked at the book with fascination and laughed.
“But JS really does think about spirits, doesn’t it?”
“The deceased fall under JS’s jurisdiction.”
“But when you think about it, spirits should go to JS, yet they remain here instead. So from JS’s perspective, they’re illegal residents illegally staying in the Living World… yet they still take care of them. That’s what I found surprising.”
“Take care of them, you say…”
At those words, the Dung Carrier Goblin paused to think for a moment, then shook his head.
“It’s not so much taking care of them as it is… just management.”
“Management?”
“It’s better to gather them in places like this restaurant for management rather than have them scattered about in all directions.”
“I didn’t know spirits were managed either.”
“If spirits aren’t managed, they can turn into malevolent spirits.”
“Malevolent spirits?”
“You know, the kind of ghosts that appear in horror movies. They’re not common, but those consumed by resentment sometimes become that way.”
“This world of yours really… has so many things I don’t know about.”
“It’s natural that you don’t know.”
The Dung Carrier Goblin looked at Yu Tae-poong with a smile.
“You’ve never died before.”
“That’s true.”
“And there’s no benefit in knowing too much about this world’s affairs.”
“You say that, but you tell me things whenever I’m curious.”
“I don’t think there’s a need to tell you beforehand, but I figure it’s good to know about things you’re curious about.”
The Goblin closed the book and glanced at the time.
“It seems like it’s around lunchtime… let’s go to Han-kki Restaurant.”
“Han-kki Restaurant?”
“The owners of the Underworld Restaurant have excellent culinary skills. Whatever menu they put out, it’s all delicious.”
“Then the restaurant in Gangwon Province must have good food too.”
“Of course.”
Dung Carrier Goblin opened the Goblin Library door with a smile.
Whoooosh!
Then a landscape I’d never seen before came into view. Just moments ago, it had been a neighborhood alley, but now… towering buildings stretched out in every direction.
Yu Tae-poong stepped outside and glanced around before spotting a sign on one side and speaking.
“Gangnam…?”
“Han-kki Restaurant is in Gangnam. This way.”
As Dung Carrier Goblin led the way forward, Yu Tae-poong closed the door behind them. It was the entrance to some building.
Following Dung Carrier Goblin through the towering buildings, Yu Tae-poong could see a two-story structure wedged between the skyscrapers.

「Han-kki Restaurant」

Yu Tae-poong looked around in bewilderment and spoke.
“Wow… just looking at it, the land value here seems astronomical. How can such a small shop exist in a place like this?”
“Strange?”
“Of course. If they just demolished this shop, they could build a small building even with the limited space.”
Being squeezed between buildings, the lot wasn’t particularly spacious, but it would still be enough to construct a modest building.
A two-story building on land that clearly cost tens of millions per square meter…
As Yu Tae-poong stared at the building in disbelief, Dung Carrier Goblin explained with a smile.
“The owners of the Underworld Restaurant have no interest in becoming wealthy in the Living World.”
“Why?”
Yu Tae-poong, puzzled at the thought of someone not wanting to become rich, listened as Dung Carrier Goblin continued.
“They live in the Living World but understand the Afterlife.”
“The Afterlife?”
“No one understands better than they do that no matter how much money you earn, it all ends when you die. That’s why they have no greed for wealth.”
Then Dung Carrier Goblin looked at me.
“Ah! But don’t misunderstand—having no greed for money doesn’t mean asceticism. It just means having enough to live on is sufficient, without the desire to earn money on a grand scale beyond that.”
“I understand what you mean. Isn’t that exactly my situation?”
“You?”
Dung Carrier Goblin looked at me as if asking whether I had no greed for money, and I nodded.
“If I set my mind to earning money, I could make a lot. But I don’t, do I?”
“How would you earn money?”
Dung Carrier Goblin tilted his head, knowing that aside from the Goblin Library where I worked, I had no other means of earning money, and I laughed as I spoke.
“Through the books in the library, I could earn a lot of money if I set my mind to it.”
“Through books?”
I laughed at Dung Carrier Goblin, who still didn’t understand. I was thinking about how if I frequently offered my opinions as a reader on the ongoing stories in the library, the goblins who liked my opinions might even give me gold.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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