Goblin Library - Chapter 60

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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 60

「I am Hong-ae, an Independence Fighter.
If you are reading this letter, you will be shocked and bewildered. With your assistance, I orchestrated the explosion at the Mitsuda Department Store and successfully eliminated several pro-Japanese collaborators and high-ranking officials.
I am truly grateful. That is why I wish to inform you of this fact, even now.
Though it was for the sake of Korean independence, much blood has stained my hands, so I shall descend into hell. I hope that President Mitsuda will soon follow me there, so that we may meet in that darkness.」

Mitsuda, who had attended Hong-ae’s funeral, received the letter she had left behind. He wiped away his tears and opened the envelope.
As he began reading its contents, his face trembled violently. The revelation that she was an Independence Fighter was shocking enough, but beneath words of gratitude lay not a blessing—it was a curse, a promise to wait for him in hell.
Yet his shock was short-lived. Mitsuda hastily glanced around, then hurried toward a secluded wall where no one could see him and drew out a matchbox.
Scratch, scratch!
In his anxiety and panic, he broke several matches before one finally ignited.
Whoosh!
Mitsuda quickly transferred the flame to the paper.
He had not known that Hong-ae was an Independence Fighter, but regardless, it was he who had invited her to the Mitsuda Department Store. If it became known that he was responsible for this terrorism, he would be ruined.
As Mitsuda watched the paper burn, he glanced frantically around.
Then his eyes fell upon a man. The man was also burning paper.
When their eyes met, his face went rigid.
『Inspector Kuroda…?』
Realizing that Inspector Kuroda had received the same letter, Mitsuda quickly lowered his head to watch the paper turn to ash.
If Kuroda had received the same letter, he would not arrest him. They had both committed the same transgression.
But this was something that absolutely could not be known by anyone else.
Therefore….
All traces of Hong-ae must be erased.
The men who received the ten letters Hong-ae had left behind all reached the same conclusion, and they began to erase every trace of her existence.
And so Hong-ae vanished from history.

***

Whoosh!
Bamboo Sword Goblin emerged from his room in the Goblin Library and spotted two goblins examining a laptop at a distant desk.
After observing them for a moment, Bamboo Sword Goblin brushed off his clothes and approached them.
“How’s the serialization going?”
At Bamboo Sword Goblin’s question, the two goblins turned to face him. Dung Carrier Goblin looked somewhat dejected, while Pot Goblin’s face was radiant with smiles.
Reading the answer from their expressions, Bamboo Sword Goblin spoke.
“It seems you’ve been staring at the monitor all day… but constantly watching doesn’t actually increase the view count.”
“I know that… but I can’t help myself from watching.”
Pot Goblin laughed as she spoke, then glanced at Dung Carrier Goblin.
“There’s something thrilling about seeing the view count climb.”
At Pot Goblin’s words, Dung Carrier Goblin’s expression hardened before he replied.
“Mine’s… climbing too.”
Observing the two of them, Bamboo Sword Goblin glanced around.
“Where’s Yu Tae-poong?”
“He went to eat. It’s lunchtime.”
“What about you two?”
“We asked Yu Tae-poong to bring us some lunch boxes.”
At those words, Bamboo Sword Goblin’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“He’s my employee.”
He clearly disapproved of having his employee run errands.
At Bamboo Sword Goblin’s remark, Pot Goblin raised her hand enthusiastically.
“I’ll pay his salary! Then he can be my employee, right?”
Bamboo Sword Goblin regarded her with narrowed eyes for a moment, then shook his head. He then surveyed the books on the shelves.
Seeing this, Pot Goblin asked him.
“Aren’t you going?”
“This is my library.”
“The one who said he hated managing the library and despised being director now calls it ‘my library.'”
At Pot Goblin’s words, Dung Carrier Goblin nodded in agreement.
“The thread that fellow drew back then was incredibly long.”
“It was. Who would have thought the thread he chose so carefully would be that long? I thought I’d become the Red Pepper Goblin who drew one meter.”
“Bamboo Sword Goblin’s thread must have been around five meters.”
At the two goblins’ words, Bamboo Sword Goblin sighed and recalled the past.
When the previous director of the Goblin Library passed away, a new director was selected.
While wielding the goblin’s club could manage things, there still needed to be a goblin who resided there and cared for it.
So when the previous goblin director passed away, a new director was chosen through a thread-drawing ceremony where all goblins from across the nation gathered.
Every goblin drew a single thread from a bundle, and the goblin who drew the longest thread became the new director.
All goblins loved to play and thus despised the director position… but after the previous director passed away, Bamboo Sword Goblin drew the longest thread in the ceremony.
And so Bamboo Sword Goblin came to occupy the position of current director of the Goblin Library.
Sighing at the two goblins’ teasing, Bamboo Sword Goblin examined the books on the shelves before retrieving his goblin’s club.
As Bamboo Sword Goblin gently swung the baton-shaped club, it transformed into a feather duster.
Tap-tap-tap! Tap-tap!
Dung Carrier Goblin tilted his head as he watched Bamboo Sword Goblin lightly dust the shelves.
“Yu Tae-poong cleans every day, so there shouldn’t be any dust, right?”
“….”
Bamboo Sword Goblin didn’t answer. He simply continued dusting slowly, moving between the shelves.
Pot Goblin spoke softly.
“If he just wanted to dust, he could swing his club once and be done with it… It seems like he’s waiting for Yu Tae-poong, doesn’t it?”
“Waiting for Yu Tae-poong? Why?”
“Hmm….”
Pot Goblin pondered for a moment before speaking.
“Maybe he wants him to read the book?”
“Well, the Lim Sung-un novel should be progressing by now.”
As the two goblins conversed, Yu Tae-poong opened the door and entered. The plastic bag in his hand looked heavy, filled with something.
“I’m here.”
Upon entering the Goblin Library, Yu Tae-poong placed the bag on the table and pulled out newspaper to line it.
“It’s freshly made kimchi stew, so it should be delicious.”
As Yu Tae-poong removed the container of stew and the side dish containers, he noticed Bamboo Sword Goblin holding the feather duster and quickly said.
“I’ll do it.”
“No.”
With a light gesture of Bamboo Sword Goblin’s hand, a book on the shelf fell with a soft thud.
Thud!
“Oh, a book fell.”
Even at Yu Tae-poong’s words, Bamboo Sword Goblin didn’t stop his hand. Thinking perhaps he hadn’t heard, Yu Tae-poong hurried over and picked up the fallen book.
And he looked at the book.

【Kang Young-moon】
Author: Bamboo Sword Goblin

“Huh? This is the Company President’s book.”
Yu Tae-poong lifted his head to look at where Bamboo Sword Goblin had been standing. But Bamboo Sword Goblin was no longer there.
Instead….
Click!
At the sound of the door closing, Yu Tae-poong turned his head and saw Bamboo Sword Goblin leaving through the glass window.
“Huh? So suddenly?”
The goblin who had just been cleaning with a feather duster suddenly left the Goblin Library.
As Yu Tae-poong tilted his head in confusion, Pot Goblin let out a soft chuckle.
“Looks like he was thinking of asking you to read his book.”
“His book?”
“If it were an old work, he would have recommended it along with Lim Sung-un’s… so this must be something he just started writing recently.”
As she spoke, Pot Goblin approached and took the book, opening it.
Then she flipped through it rapidly, whoosh whoosh! before speaking.
“The volume is small and it’s not finished, so it really does seem to be a new work like I said.”
“Ah….”
At that, Yu Tae-poong looked at the bookshelf and let out another exclamation.
“Ah!”
The books lined up on the shelf couldn’t have fallen out just from a casual sweep with a feather duster.
They were packed far too tightly. This was….
‘He dropped it on purpose. For me to pick it up….’
Yu Tae-poong chuckled as he read Bamboo Sword Goblin’s intentions. He had deliberately left it in a visible spot because it felt awkward to ask directly.
[Ahem!]
At the sudden sound of Bamboo Sword Goblin’s fake cough, Yu Tae-poong quickly set the book down on the table.
Even if he couldn’t read his exact thoughts, Bamboo Sword Goblin could sense emotions, so he knew what Yu Tae-poong was thinking.
At that, Yu Tae-poong quietly picked up the book again.
“I happen to like the Company President’s protagonists, so I’ll read it with interest.”
Yu Tae-poong also liked courageous people. Especially if they were dark hero types like Lim Sung-un—characters he wished existed in reality.
[This one has a slightly different style than Lim Sung-un.]
“Even if it’s slightly different, they should still be courageous, right?”
[That’s….]
Bamboo Sword Goblin paused briefly before speaking.
[See the character’s nature for yourself and judge.]
At Bamboo Sword Goblin’s words, Yu Tae-poong nodded and opened the book. And soon he tilted his head in confusion.
“Huh?”
The beginning… the story, no… how should I put it, this wasn’t Bamboo Sword Goblin’s style at all.
It felt almost… like a fairy tale… with large, abundant illustrations.
[Ahem! I tried changing my writing style a bit this time.]
“Why?”
[It’s… at least a little less gloomy that way. Look.]
Yu Tae-poong paused briefly to consider the meaning of “less gloomy,” then returned his gaze to the book. Like Da-hyang Goblin’s books, this one had illustrations drawn throughout.
A somewhat shabby village painted in warm hues.

***

Two brothers lived together with their Grandfather in a certain village.
The elder and younger brother shared a deep bond. The elder brother would always save the snacks given to him at school for his younger brother, never eating them himself.
The younger brother, in turn, would teach his older brother everything he learned at school, since his elder was slow to learn and not particularly bright.
As the younger brother taught him, the elder would always say:
“Our Young-sik is really smart. Our Young-sik is going to become a doctor.”
The younger brother would laugh at his elder’s bright smile and reply:
“When I become a doctor, I’ll definitely fix our older brother’s head too.”
“Hehe! Yeah, Young-sik, fix your brother’s head. Then I’ll become as smart as Young-sik too.”
And so the affectionate brothers grew into adulthood, cherishing and caring for one another.

***

Nearly ten pages were filled with large illustrations and brief text in bright, warm colors.
It was truly like a fairy tale book for young children.
Da-hyang Goblin’s book also had many illustrations, but not ones this large.
“The Company President draws quite well.”
[My former master was skilled in poetry, calligraphy, and painting.]
“I see.”
Yu Tae-poong nodded and turned the page to the next one.

***

Kang Young-moon’s mother had abandoned the home when he was young. His father left the two brothers with their Grandfather, saying he would earn money and return, but he never came back. Since then, their Grandfather had been raising the two brothers with great care.
Of course, after the brothers became adults, they had been taking care of their Grandfather in return.
Kang Young-moon worked at a Car Wash. This was a place where he had worked part-time since middle school to earn living expenses, and now he was formally employed there.
The Car Wash owner was truly a good person. Knowing Kang Young-moon’s difficult circumstances—that he learned more slowly than others—the owner had given him work.
Though Kang Young-moon was slow to learn new tasks because of his limited intellect, once he mastered the work, he performed car washes more meticulously and cleanly than anyone else. As a result, customers who had once experienced Kang Young-moon’s service would request him specifically for their cars afterward.
Whether exterior or interior, when a car was entrusted to Kang Young-moon, it would truly gleam.
Because he had to work hard to provide for his younger brother’s tuition and his Grandfather’s medical bills, Kang Young-moon worked harder than anyone else.
Because he had to work hard to pay for his younger sibling’s tuition and his grandfather’s hospital bills, Kang Young-moon worked harder than anyone else.

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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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