Goblin Library - Chapter 120

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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 120.

As Lee Gang-jin and I were conversing, he glanced at Bae Yong-su.
“Let me bring out some refreshments.”
“Refreshments? Do you enjoy nuts?”
“I do.”
“And sweets?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll serve you candied nuts and a refreshing omija tea.”
A moment of silence followed before a tray laden with plates and cups emerged from the kitchen.
Thunk!
The tray was set upon the table, and the plates and cups were arranged before Lee Gang-jin and me.
Then water was poured from a pitcher.
Splash, splash!
Bae Yong-su poured the reddish liquid and spoke.
“This is omija tea. It’s best enjoyed chilled in summer, but it’s quite pleasant now as well. The sweet candied nuts pair beautifully with the tart, refreshing omija tea.”
I examined the candied nuts on the plate. Walnuts, peanuts, pine nuts, and other varieties were bound together with honey or syrup and cut into neat squares.
“They look delicious.”
“Please, try one.”
At Bae Yong-su’s invitation, I picked up a piece of candied nut and placed it in my mouth.
Crunch, crunch!
“Wow… that’s delicious.”
The crisp texture, the rich nuttiness, and the sweetness of honey blended together pleasantly on my palate.
“I made them myself.”
At Bae Yong-su’s words, I nodded appreciatively.
“Candied nuts are usually tasty but often hard and brittle, but these are crispy without being hard. And they don’t stick to your teeth either.”
“Hmm…”
When Bae Yong-su’s response trailed off, I found it odd as something else came flying from the kitchen.
Floating gently.
A small plate bobbed lightly up and down as if being carried by hand, then was set upon the table.
“If you enjoyed the texture of the candied nuts, try these as well.”
At Bae Yong-su’s words, I looked at the plate. It contained small roasted anchovies.
“Roasted anchovies?”
“Try them.”
At Bae Yong-su’s urging, I picked up an anchovy and ate it.
Crackle, crackle!
I laughed.
“These taste like candy. They’re crispy and sweet.”
“It tastes good mixed with rice too. I’ll pack some for you later.”
Lee Gang-jin spoke, and Yu Tae-poong nodded before his gaze drifted to the donation box.
“But earlier, the customers were paying for their meals on their own. Does the business work that way?”
This was one of the things Yu Tae-poong had been most curious about since arriving here. From what he’d heard, some people left without paying.
At Yu Tae-poong’s question, Lee Gang-jin nodded.
“It manages to work out.”
“But you said some people leave without paying?”
“As I mentioned when they were eating, they probably don’t have money.”
“You serve meals to people without money?”
“If someone comes to a restaurant during mealtime, they must be hungry.”
Yu Tae-poong looked at Lee Gang-jin with bewilderment as he answered so casually. At that expression, Lee Gang-jin smiled and spoke.
“I can’t just turn away people who come to a restaurant because they’re hungry.”
“But surely some people deliberately leave without paying?”
“It’s not just people who don’t pay.”
Yu Tae-poong looked toward where the voice came from. Though invisible, Bae Yong-su’s voice continued.
“Some people take money.”
“They take money?”
“Don’t say unnecessary things.”
At Lee Gang-jin’s restraint, Bae Yong-su sighed and spoke.
“That’s all their karma too.”
“…Still, they don’t take that much. Just a few thousand-won bills at most.”
“Watching someone create karma without stopping is also creating karma.”
“But if I collected the payment directly myself, that would be wrong too. Then the people who really came without money would feel embarrassed.”
At Lee Gang-jin’s response, Yu Tae-poong looked at him.
“Did you perhaps set it up this way to consider those who come without money?”
“I didn’t have that intention at first.”
Lee Gang-jin chuckled and continued.
“When I inherited this restaurant, there were certain rules.”
“Rules?”
“One of them is ‘accept whatever the customers give.'”
“Whatever they give….”
“That’s right. Even if someone eats a huge amount, if they only pay a thousand won, I can only accept a thousand won.”
“Wow….”
Seeing Yu Tae-poong’s astonished expression, Lee Gang-jin shook his head.
“That’s why I made the donation box like this. Since I can’t set prices, I ask them to pay what they think is right. As a result, some people leave without paying like Yong-su said, and some people take money.”
Then Lee Gang-jin smiled and spoke.
“But now there are no regular customers who take money.”
Lee Gang-jin flicked his finger lightly and continued.
“In fact, on days when they really enjoy the meal, some pay fifty thousand won.”
“Fifty thousand won?”
“You see, we have customers who come to our restaurant because they truly have no money. When people learn that we serve meals to those customers without charging them, they want to help out and do something good.”
Lee Gang-jin continued with a smile.
“There are more good people in this world than bad ones. That’s why we receive more help than we lose to theft.”
“That’s a wonderful world.”
“And since restaurants always have leftover rice, when hungry people come in without money, we have to feed them.”
“You’re truly a good person, sir.”
“I’m not really. I’m just ordinary….”
Lee Gang-jin, about to say he was just an ordinary person, let out a small chuckle and glanced to the side.
“…or so I’d like to think.”
After all, I can see ghosts.
Lee Gang-jin laughed quietly, then suddenly looked at Yu Tae-poong.
“Since I took over this restaurant, I’ve often wanted to talk with someone about my profession.”
“I understand. I feel the same way. How did you handle it? You’ve been running a restaurant longer than I have.”
When Yu Tae-poong asked as if in agreement, Lee Gang-jin smiled and replied.
“I’m not sure if you know, but there are several Afterlife Restaurants across the country. So I occasionally meet with those owners and talk with them… Some of them know about ghosts, so I share conversations with them too. What about you?”
“I have a restaurant owner who knows about goblins, so I talk with them.”
“A restaurant owner? Could it be an Afterlife Restaurant?”
“It’s not.”
“Well, there are people who know about ghosts without being involved in this line of work, so it makes sense that goblins would be the same.”
Lee Gang-jin nodded and asked.
“But are there multiple Goblin Libraries too?”
“The Goblin Library is just one….”
Yu Tae-poong, mid-sentence, looked at the Dung Carrier Goblin.
“There’s only one, right?”
“Just one.”
“Only one, then.”
At Yu Tae-poong’s words, Lee Gang-jin sighed and looked at him.
“Whenever you need someone to talk to, come by. The metaphor might not be perfect, but only a widower understands what it means to be a widower.”
“Then that works out well for me.”
Yu Tae-poong spoke with a smile, and Lee Gang-jin, smiling back, changed the subject.
“By the way, how’s the library?”
“What do you mean?”
“The work.”
Lee Gang-jin added, looking at the Dung Carrier Goblin.
“I was curious what it’s like working with your older brothers.”
The Dung Carrier Goblin’s eyes widened.
“Older brother?”
“You are my older brother.”
As Lee Gang-jin answered with a laugh, the Dung Carrier Goblin, who had been momentarily dazed, broke into a bright smile.
“Hahaha! That’s right, I am your older brother. I’m older than you, after all.”
“Of course! Hahaha!”
Lee Gang-jin mirrored the Dung Carrier Goblin’s cheerful laughter with a smile of his own.
Yu Tae-poong smiled at the two of them and spoke.
“The goblins have been taking good care of me.”
“I see.”
“Oh! Dung Carrier Goblin, would it be alright if I asked you something too?”
At Bae Yong-su’s words, the Dung Carrier Goblin laughed.
“Sure, ask away. Go ahead and ask anything.”
He seemed delighted to be called “older brother.” No—seemed was the wrong word. He was clearly overjoyed by it.
At the Dung Carrier Goblin’s words, Bae Yong-su asked his question.
“When you think of goblins, surely you think of a goblin club, right?”
“That’s right. Goblins and clubs go hand in hand.”
Lee Gang-jin’s eyes sparkled as he looked at the Dung Carrier Goblin.
“This foolish Yong-su here seems eager to see a goblin club just once. If you don’t mind, would you be willing to show us?”
At Lee Gang-jin’s words, Bae Yong-su eagerly agreed without any hint of objection.
“Yes, I would very much like to see it.”
The Dung Carrier Goblin gave a small cough at their enthusiasm, then pulled out a cloth that had been tucked into his waistband.
“Behold! This is my goblin club.”
Confusion flickered across Lee Gang-jin’s face. The spirits felt the same way.
What people typically imagined as a goblin club was, true to its name, a heavy iron club. It was adorned with multiple spike-like protrusions.
But what the Dung Carrier Goblin had pulled out was cloth.
“That’s not a club—that’s cloth,” Lee Hye-mi said.
Yu Tae-poong smiled and replied.
“I also thought goblin clubs were actually shaped like clubs at first. But it turns out each goblin’s club takes a different form based on their individual nature.”
“Really?”
“Our Company President’s club looks like a conductor’s baton, and some goblins have clubs shaped like shoes or keys. Each goblin’s club is different.”
“That’s fascinating. It’s quite different from the goblin stories we know.”
“Very different.”
Lee Hye-mi spoke softly as she listened to the explanation.
“Then… you can’t create gold the way they do in fairy tales?”
“You seem to like gold.”
“Well, goblin clubs are famous for the saying ‘Gold, appear with a bang!'”
At Lee Hye-mi’s answer, the Dung Carrier Goblin waved the cloth.
“Gold, appear with a bang!”
Whoosh!
Then a lump of gold appeared on the floor.
“Wow!”
“Whoa!”
“Gold!”
As the spirits and Lee Gang-jin stared at the gold in astonishment, Yu Tae-poong whispered softly to the Dung Carrier Goblin.
“What was that incantation just now? You don’t usually do that sort of thing.”
When the Goblin created gold, he only needed to swing his mallet lightly, so he had never memorized any special words.
“The audience seemed to want it. Whoosh!”
At the Dung Carrier Goblin’s soft laugh, Yu Tae-poong smiled and glanced at Lee Gang-jin.
Lee Gang-jin had been watching the gold when he suddenly reached out his hand.
“Wow, it’s heavy!”
“Heavy?”
“How heavy is it?”
“Wait, hold on!”
“That’s right!”
A moment later, rubber gloves came floating out from the kitchen. The gloves grasped the gold nugget and lifted it.
“Wow! Something this small is so heavy.”
“Right? Gold really is gold, after all.”
As Yu Tae-poong watched the ghosts each pick up the gold nugget and shake it up and down, he suddenly asked.
“By any chance, are those rubber gloves also JS items?”
“Since our employees are ghosts, they need to be able to touch things whether they’re washing dishes or doing anything else. That’s why we have so many JS items.”
Lee Gang-jin pointed to the plates and trays on the table.
“These are all JS items too.”
“That’s fascinating.”
At Yu Tae-poong’s words, Lee Gang-jin held up the gold and answered.
“I find this gold even more fascinating.”
“Working with your older brothers who can whip up gold like this, wouldn’t you want to collect some of these things?”
Yu Tae-poong shook his head.
“Goblins don’t release the gold they create into the market. Well, they do release some, but only very little.”
“Why?”
“If we released all the gold we created, the economy of the Living World would collapse.”
“Why would you brothers care about that?”
At Bae Yong-su’s question, the Dung Carrier Goblin laughed and answered.
“We love to play and have fun. But if the economy of the Living World crumbles because of the gold we scattered, we won’t be able to play anymore. That’s why we try not to do things that could disrupt the order of the Living World.”
At the Dung Carrier Goblin’s words, Lee Gang-jin looked at him and smiled.
“I see… It seems great power comes with its own set of rules.”
Yu Tae-poong then spoke.
“Actually, if Goblins used their power freely, this world would have been conquered by them long ago.”
Lee Gang-jin and the ghosts all nodded in agreement. Regardless of other abilities, just the fact that they could conjure gold out of thin air would be more than enough to conquer the earth.

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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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