Goblin Library - Chapter 66

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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 66

Grandfather smiled as he watched the pork belly cook to a perfect golden brown.
“Time to flip the meat.”
At Grandfather’s words, Kang Young-moon flipped the meat with tongs.
“The meat is cooked perfectly.”
As Kang Young-moon cut the meat with scissors, Kang Young-sik picked up a piece and placed it on Grandfather’s plate.
“Please chew it well.”
“My legs may be troublesome, but my teeth are still strong.”
Grandfather answered with a laugh, dipped the meat in salt, and smiled as he ate it.
“It tastes wonderful.”
“Please have plenty.”
At Kang Young-sik’s words, Grandfather nodded.
“By the way, Young-sik has been coming home late lately. Is studying difficult?”
“It’s not that it’s difficult. I just have a lot of books to study.”
Kang Young-moon spoke with a smile.
“Young-sik is very bright. He studies well.”
Grandfather also smiled back and spoke.
“That’s right, Young-sik studies hard.”
Kang Young-sik attended school, coming home late and leaving early each morning.
He made time only on the exceptional day once a month when he dined out with his family. This day was precious and meaningful to them.
The reason he studied so diligently was to protect this family.
So neglecting his family under the excuse of needing to study would be putting the cart before the horse—something that could never happen.
“Eat plenty.”
“Grandfather, please chew it well.”
“I will. I will.”
Yu Tae-poong smiled and sipped his soju as he watched the harmonious Kang Young-moon family dining together.
‘A pleasant sight.’
As Yu Tae-poong had that thought, someone sat down in the empty seat beside him.
Thump!
Feeling a presence beside him, Yu Tae-poong turned his head. The Bamboo Sword Goblin was quietly seated there.
“I was actually thinking I should contact you, as I suspected you might be in this area.”
At Yu Tae-poong’s words, the Bamboo Sword Goblin nodded and raised his hand.
“Could you set up a place for me, please?”
Kim Mi-sun then came with glasses and side plates.
“Thank you. And… could I have four servings of short ribs, please?”
“Of course.”
At the Bamboo Sword Goblin’s polite order, Kim Mi-sun smiled and went inside.
When the Bamboo Sword Goblin lifted his glass, the Dung Carrier Goblin poured beer for him.
“It’s unusual for you to choose a harmonious family as your subject matter.”
“A courageous person exists within a harmonious family.”
The Pot Goblin spoke in response to the Bamboo Sword Goblin’s words.
“Still, it’s true that the Bamboo Sword Goblin hasn’t chosen this kind of theme well until now.”
At that, the Bamboo Sword Goblin squinted his eyes, sighed, and spoke.
“A writer must develop.”
The two goblins looked at him, wondering what he meant. Receiving their gazes, the Bamboo Sword Goblin continued.
“We are goblins. That’s why we become curious about humans who resemble our nature and use them as subjects for our writing.”
“Is there any goblin who doesn’t know that? Why are you saying something everyone already knows?”
“But precisely because of that, our writing becomes formulaic.”
The two goblins looked at the Bamboo Sword Goblin with expressions seeking explanation.
“For example, among human writers, those who write cooking novels well tend to write many novels on that subject.”
“Well, that makes sense.”
The Pot Goblin nodded in agreement with the Dung Carrier Goblin’s response.
“If there’s a genre you write well, you tend to focus on that.”
“But when you write about the same subject one piece, two pieces, three pieces after another, the writing becomes formulaic. For instance, rude customers at a restaurant, customers moved by food, stories about cooking for pitiful children… Of course, it would be entertaining. Since it’s a subject you write well, even similar stories can be woven in various ways.”
The Bamboo Sword Goblin shook his head.
“But if you do that, the stories become similar. Self-replication is a major problem for a writer.”
At the mention of self-replication, the two goblins nodded. They were goblins who wrote unpopular stories that few people read, but they considered themselves writers nonetheless.
So they agreed with what the Bamboo Sword Goblin said as a writer.
In fact, just as the Bamboo Sword Goblin said, both of them always wrote novels using similar characters as subjects. The incidents were often alike as well. Since goblins are instinctively drawn to subjects resembling their nature, it was inevitable.
Of course, there were differentiated and special subjects like 【Lim Ok-beom】 written by the Dung Carrier Goblin, but that was a truly exceptional case.
“So you’re saying you made changes to your subject matter?”
The Bamboo Sword Goblin nodded at the Dung Carrier Goblin’s question.
“Until now, the subjects I’ve written have been courageous and strong people. Strength has many meanings, but the people I wrote all had hearts and bodies that wouldn’t break for anyone. They were like scholars wielding swords or generals.”
Having said so, the Bamboo Sword Goblin turned his head and looked at Kang Young-moon, who was eating meat happily with his family and chatting.
“But Kang Young-moon is different from what I’ve written until now. Both his heart and body are weak. However, his love for his family is stronger than anyone else’s. To protect his family, he can muster courage stronger than anyone. You could say it’s a warm kind of courage.”
“Warm courage…”
The Dung Carrier Goblin paused for a moment, then nodded. In the aspect of doing things for family, there was a part that aligned with the Dung Carrier Goblin’s subjects.
The protagonists of the Dung Carrier Goblin’s stories also didn’t care about others’ opinions, but they were people who worked hard for their families.
“Now that I think about it, even though the protagonists in the Bamboo Sword Goblin’s novels had courage, most of them were people who acted for the justice they pursued.”
The Dung Carrier Goblin nodded at the Pot Goblin’s words.
“They were cold and ruthless.”
“If you compare it to baseball, you threw a change-up.”
The Bamboo Sword Goblin nodded at the two goblins’ words and picked up some meat to eat.
“You two should also add variation to your writing. You can’t keep writing similar stories forever.”
“That’s… true.”
The Pot Goblin nodded, took out a key, and pressed it against the empty air.
But nothing changed.
‘What’s this?’
As Yu Tae-poong gazed at Pot Goblin, Dung Carrier Goblin spoke.
“She’s looking at the protagonists from the novels she’s written.”
“I don’t see anything?”
“You won’t see them—you’re human.”
Dung Carrier Goblin gently stroked the glasses perched on Yu Tae-poong’s nose with her hand.
Then, with a gesture to look, Yu Tae-poong turned his gaze toward Pot Goblin.
Surprise flickered across his eyes.
Around Pot Goblin, phantom figures of small people moved through the empty air. Among them were people dressed in traditional Korean garments befitting a historical drama, and others wearing what looked like old military training uniforms no longer in use.
‘That’s Cha Im-beom.’
And there was even Cha Im-beom dressed in firefighter gear.
Just as Dung Carrier Goblin had said, these appeared to be characters from the novels Pot Goblin had written thus far.
Pot Goblin, observing her own protagonists, nodded her head.
“Bamboo Sword Goblin’s right. They’re all pretty much the same.”
As Pot Goblin shook her head, Dung Carrier Goblin seemed at a loss for words and merely smacked her lips.
There was no need to even look at her own novel’s protagonists. They would be no worse than Pot Goblin’s—if anything, they’d be even more so.
Watching the three goblins fall silent as they contemplated their own writing, Yu Tae-poong spoke.
“As you always say, you both have such definite preferences in subject matter… it must have been difficult to introduce variation into your work.”
“That’s true.”
At Bamboo Sword Goblin’s response, Dung Carrier Goblin looked at him.
“But why did you think of making this change?”
Bamboo Sword Goblin cleared his throat and spoke.
“I read another novel.”
Dung Carrier Goblin tilted her head curiously.
“Another novel?”
“You once told me you found my writing entertaining, remember?”
“I did.”
At Dung Carrier Goblin’s reply, Bamboo Sword Goblin paused to gather his thoughts before speaking.
“When you said it was entertaining… it seemed like you genuinely meant it.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“You know it, I know it, and Pot Goblin knows it too—but at some point, we goblins stopped reading each other’s work.”
Long ago, goblins would frequently read books by other authors in the Goblin Library. With time in abundance and entertainment scarce, they enjoyed sharing novels written by their fellow goblins.
But at some point, the goblins distanced themselves from books. They had entered an era where entertainment overflowed everywhere, with or without literature.
Since so few goblins were reading anymore, some—like Dung Carrier Goblin—formed groups like the Writer’s Circle, proposing they support each other’s work.
Yet among the goblins in the circle, including Dung Carrier Goblin herself, none truly read each other’s books.
And Bamboo Sword Goblin was no exception.
But then Dung Carrier Goblin—who seemed unlikely to read books and whose style was completely different from his own—said she had enjoyed his work.
That had been somewhat shocking.
Dung Carrier Goblin had genuinely enjoyed his book?
“If you found my book entertaining, then perhaps I too could find another goblin’s writing entertaining.”
“That would be the case.”
“So I read it. After all, we Goblins are creatures who pursue what’s entertaining.”
At the Bamboo Sword Goblin’s words, Yu Tae-poong laughed and asked.
“So did you find an entertaining book?”
The Bamboo Sword Goblin nodded.
“The Table Goblin’s writing was quite entertaining.”
“The Table Goblin, huh… Her writing does have a certain warmth to it.”
As the Pot Goblin answered as if she knew well, Yu Tae-poong looked at her, then nodded with an “ah.”
“So you two must be close, being the Pot and the Table.”
The Pot prepares the food, and the food thus made is served on the Table, after all.
“She does share a similar temperament with me.”
“Then your subject matter must be similar too.”
At Yu Tae-poong’s words, the Pot Goblin nodded.
“It is.”
The Pot Goblin looked at the Bamboo Sword Goblin.
“But the Table Goblin’s writing must be quite different from yours?”
“It is, certainly. But the protagonist I saw was a courageous mother striving to protect her family.”
At the Bamboo Sword Goblin’s words, Yu Tae-poong looked at Kang Young-moon.
“So you made Kang Young-moon your protagonist.”
“I can’t say I wasn’t influenced.”
The Bamboo Sword Goblin looked at the two Goblins.
“It would be good for you to read other writers’ works as well.”
“I read a lot of books these days.”
At the Dung Carrier Goblin’s words, the Bamboo Sword Goblin nodded as if he already knew. After all, he himself had been shocked that the Dung Carrier Goblin read books and had since read other Goblins’ works.
The Bamboo Sword Goblin glanced at the Pot Goblin. At that gaze, the Pot Goblin took a sip of beer and spoke.
“These days there are many other entertaining things, so I haven’t been reading… but I used to read a lot of books back then.”
As the Pot Goblin spoke, just as the Bamboo Sword Goblin was about to open his mouth, the Dung Carrier Goblin spoke first.
“I wrote a book called 【Oh Jang-hyuk】 and it’s entertaining.”
At the Dung Carrier Goblin recommending his own book, the Bamboo Sword Goblin’s eyes narrowed.
It was the expression of someone who had been beaten to the punch.
The Pot Goblin laughed.
“Oh Jang-hyuk is connected to my novel Cha Im-beom, so I already know about it.”
After all, the two protagonists became intertwined in that fire episode from before.
“They were only connected; you’ve never actually read the book.”
“Hmm… it doesn’t seem like it would suit me.”
“No, the beginning might not suit you, but after that collaboration, the character changes and there are many entertaining parts. Ah! The episode I’m writing now would suit you too.”
“Suit me?”
“Because it’s a part where you can see Oh Jang-hyuk’s affection.”
The Dung Carrier Goblin looked at Yu Tae-poong.
“Right?”
Yu Tae-poong smiled as he spoke.
“The beginning might not suit you, Pot Goblin, but it gets entertaining as it goes on.”
Pot Goblin squinted her eyes. She wondered if she really had to sit through something boring at the start.
Seeing Pot Goblin’s expression, Bamboo Sword Goblin spoke up.
“Lim Sung-un’s work is entertaining too.”
“You wrote it, didn’t you?”
“Ahem!”
Bamboo Sword Goblin cleared his throat, picked up his cup, and spoke.
“It’s actually entertaining from the beginning.”
At Bamboo Sword Goblin’s words, Pot Goblin lightly tapped the table with her palm.
“Fine. I’ll read both of your books. But in return! You both have to read mine. My book is entertaining and good too.”
Pot Goblin poured alcohol into her own cup and filled the cups of Dung Carrier Goblin and Bamboo Sword Goblin as well.
“If you drink, we read each other’s books.”
At Pot Goblin’s words, the two goblins looked at each other. Then they raised their cups, clinked them together lightly, and drank in one gulp.
They were… writer goblins who needed readers.

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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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