Goblin Library - Chapter 75

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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 75.

Yu Tae-poong and Dung Carrier Goblin sat in a café across from the Convenience Store, sipping coffee and eating cheesecake.
“This cheesecake is delicious. You should try some.”
Yu Tae-poong shook his head at Dung Carrier Goblin’s words.
“If I spill anything on the book, it’ll be a disaster.”
Dung Carrier Goblin glanced down at the Lim Sung-un book Yu Tae-poong was holding.
Normally, Yu Tae-poong wouldn’t bring the book outside, fearing he might lose it or accidentally drop food on it. But this time, with Dung Carrier Goblin accompanying him, he felt confident there was at least no risk of losing it, so he brought it along to read.
“It really seems to be captivating.”
“It’s absolutely gripping. Especially….”
Yu Tae-poong smiled and glanced at the Convenience Store across the street.
“She took the building and abandoned her parents… but now she’s trying to return the building deed back to them. That really… shocked me.”
Dung Carrier Goblin nodded at Yu Tae-poong’s words.
“I didn’t see that coming either. I honestly thought she’d either keep the building deed or deceive him the way you see in news stories—claiming his business was in trouble and he urgently needed money to swindle him. That’s what I expected.”
“Exactly. But to think she’d actually return the building deed to her father….”
Yu Tae-poong continued speaking, laughing as if he truly hadn’t anticipated this.
“And doing it this way, she won’t even gain any money from it. This is genuinely about punishing evil.”
Dung Carrier Goblin nodded in agreement, laughing.
Then she cut a piece of cheesecake and put it in her mouth.
“But this really is delicious.”
“Is this your first time trying it?”
“I don’t come to places like this. And I usually only eat red bean bread and cream bread. This is my first time, and it’s really tasty.”
Yu Tae-poong watched with warmth as Dung Carrier Goblin smiled brightly and ate her cheesecake, then took a sip of his coffee.
Recalling what Dung Carrier Goblin had said, Yu Tae-poong steered the conversation back.
“The fact that she’d even consider returning the deed to her parents shows Lee Hye-eun is definitely not your typical con artist.”
“That’s true.”

***

Lee Hye-eun began working at the Convenience Store. As a fresh-faced newcomer to society, she made mistakes frequently.
Once, she deliberately added an extra zero to the milk order quantity, resulting in a hundred cartons arriving instead of ten.
Kim Un-hyun was genuinely furious at the time, but he concealed his anger behind a smile. Instead, he seized the opportunity to appear magnanimous in Lee Hye-eun’s eyes, donating the excess milk to a nearby Orphanage.
Taking Lee Hye-eun along and mentioning that he occasionally made such donations whenever mistakes like this occurred was merely the cherry on top.
In reality, he didn’t donate every time such incidents happened—he simply hurled curses at whichever part-time worker had blundered.
Regardless, through these mistakes and his comforting reassurances, the two grew considerably closer. Before long, sharing drinks together occasionally, they naturally evolved into lovers.
Of course, whenever Kim Un-hyun drank, he would orchestrate the atmosphere and attempt to guide Lee Hye-eun toward the bedroom, but she maintained an impenetrable defense.
Her family was strict, she insisted, and such things were absolutely forbidden. So despite becoming lovers, they remained at the stage of merely holding hands.
They hadn’t even progressed to kissing.
Frustrated by her continued refusals, Kim Un-hyun felt his patience wearing thin, and there were moments when his hands nearly crossed the line. Yet, uncharacteristically, he exercised restraint.
Young, beautiful, and from a wealthy family—if he played his cards right, she represented an opportunity to elevate his social standing considerably.
Then one day.
Lee Hye-eun broached the subject of marriage first. At her sudden proposal, Kim Un-hyun internally screamed “Jackpot!” but outwardly feigned surprise, asking why she felt that way.
“You seem like such a good person. And you believe in me—that I can do anything well. I feel like I can become a better person when I’m with you.”
Lee Hye-eun explained that she had decided on marriage because Kim Un-hyun had given her a faith that even her father had never granted.
She had consistently emphasized her desire to escape the confines of the framework her father had constructed for her, so Kim Un-hyun believed her words.
And there was no reason not to believe her. It was precisely what he desired as well.
But the problem was….
“I’d like to meet your parents first.”
This.
It had been years since he’d separated from his parents, and after they moved to the Rural Area, he had no idea how they were living.
Moreover, if he introduced her to his parents, everything about who he truly was would be exposed.
So Kim Un-hyun bought time by saying he would speak to his parents first.
After deliberation, he decided to hire substitute parents.
Since they wouldn’t see them often, his calculation was simple: claim his parents lived in the Rural Area, hire suitable substitutes, show them to her, and be done with it.
But Jang Ma-ru already knew he would do this. He had hacked Kim Un-hyun’s phone long ago, so the moment Kim Un-hyun searched for substitute parents, Jang Ma-ru detected it immediately.
After receiving this information from Jang Ma-ru, Lee Hye-eun quickly devised a countermeasure and went to find Kim Un-hyun.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“My father seems to have investigated you.”
“Investigated?”
“Yeah… I’m sorry. I told him I was seeing someone…. So… he must have looked into it.”
Upon hearing that he had been investigated, Kim Un-hyun felt both startled and concerned, yet simultaneously pleased.
Lee Hye-eun had clearly told her father about her intention to marry him.
The concern was whether her parents had discovered his divorce and details about his own parents.
“So I told my father not to investigate or anything. I trust the person I’ve seen with my own eyes.”
“That… does that mean my past marriage is…?”
“I know. But that’s fine. Everyone has circumstances, and divorce is common these days anyway.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you beforehand.”
“No, it’s okay. Actually, I’m grateful to that person. If you hadn’t been alone, we wouldn’t have met like this.”
At Lee Hye-eun’s words, Kim Un-hyun felt a measure of relief. She had conducted an investigation, but it seemed she’d only verified the family registry. At minimum, if she’d gone to the Rural Area and questioned any random villager, they would have regarded him as a worthless bastard.
Yet she remained completely unaware that he had abandoned his parents and his wife and children, treating him with continued familiarity.
For this reason, Kim Un-hyun abandoned the idea of arranging proxy parents.
With his background already superficially investigated, arranging proxy parents could actually create problems.
And there was one more thing….
“But oppa.”
“What?”
“Dad says it’s strange that the building deed is in your name when both our parents are still alive.”
“What’s strange about that? I just took it over when they retired and moved to the countryside.”
“I suppose, but… Dad couldn’t understand it….”
“Why not?”
“Father is quite patriarchal. He believes an adult should manage the family assets. Oppa, would it be okay if you transferred the building deed back to Father? Honestly, your divorce hasn’t helped your standing…. But if you do this, you’d improve your position and it would work out well.”
Though her words had a somewhat flimsy quality, Kim Un-hyun never imagined he was being defrauded.
Had she asked him to transfer the building deed to Lee Hye-eun herself, he would have been suspicious, but since she asked him to transfer it to his father—someone who would gain no benefit from it—his guard remained down.

***

Yu Tae-poong smiled as he recalled the book’s contents.
“Really… I never saw that development coming.”
“Right. Kim Un-hyun hasn’t transferred the deed yet, but he will. Lee Seul-gi’s character possesses so much. And since he views his divorce as his weakness, he’ll be vulnerable.”
“That seems likely.”
Kim Un-hyun believed that even if he transferred the building deed to his father, it would eventually return to him anyway since he was his father’s only child.
He was shameless enough to believe that even if he committed filial impiety against his parents, they would still cherish him as their son.
“By the way, sir, you’re writing two works simultaneously without any problems with your writing.”
Since he was writing both Lim Sung-un and Kang Young-moon at the same time, Yu Tae-poong had been privately concerned whether the burden might be too much for him.
“What problem could there be? I’m writing three pieces right now.”
At Dung Carrier Goblin’s words, Yu Tae-poong looked at him with an expression mixing surprise and bewilderment.
“Three?”
“You didn’t know?”
“I didn’t.”
“Ah… you didn’t know.”
Dung Carrier Goblin scratched his head.
“Why didn’t you tell me to read the other books?”
“Well… I thought they might be a bit boring for your taste.”
“Boring?”
“They suit my preferences just fine. The protagonists are doing their best as fathers, as husbands, as sons. But… they’re not the kind of people who’d generally receive praise from those around them.”
Then Dung Carrier Goblin smacked his lips and spoke.
“When something interesting comes up later, read it then. Up to now… there’s nothing particularly noteworthy.”
At Dung Carrier Goblin’s words, Yu Tae-poong nodded, when suddenly a thought he’d been mulling over for some time surfaced.
“Hey, hyung.”
“Huh?”
“What if you changed the direction of your stories, hyung?”
“Changed the direction?”
“Well, your main themes have been abuse of power and family, right?”
“That’s true.”
“But your real nature isn’t about abusing power—it’s about having the resolve to do what you want without caring what others think. And honestly, someone who carried dung for a living wouldn’t have had much opportunity to abuse power in the first place.”
“That’s… also true.”
“So instead of focusing on the abuse of power, wouldn’t it be better to center your writing around familial love?”
“Familial love?”
“There are people who work hard for their families. Looking at your stories so far, the protagonist does abuse power, but the real point is that he’s also living earnestly for his family and loved ones. What if you reduced the emphasis on abuse of power and instead highlighted the family man—or rather, the breadwinner working hard for his family? Since mothers work nowadays too, let’s call them the breadwinner instead of father. I think if you emphasize that role, it could become a really heartwarming novel.”
At Yu Tae-poong’s words, Dung Carrier Goblin fell silent for a moment, then spoke.
“Reduce the abuse of power and highlight the breadwinner living for his family…”
“What you really want to show isn’t abuse of power—it’s the weight of being a breadwinner and love itself. The abuse of power is just a device to convey that effectively.”
“That’s… true.”
Dung Carrier Goblin, lost in thought, soon smiled.
“You’re right. That’s what I wanted to show… but I was displaying it wrong.”
“It’s not wrong. You were trying to show that even people who abuse power have warm hearts and care for their families, so you ended up emphasizing the abuse of power a bit too much.”
“That’s right.”
Seeing that he understood, Yu Tae-poong relaxed and spoke.
“I was hesitant to bring it up, but I’m grateful you took it so well.”
“No, it’s really good feedback. I’ve been writing with the protagonist abusing power frequently and showing his good side occasionally, but doing the opposite would work much better. Thanks for the great input.”
As Dung Carrier Goblin spoke, Yu Tae-poong smiled and nodded, and at that moment, the Convenience Store door closed as Lee Hye-eun and Kim Un-hyun stepped outside.
Watching Kim Un-hyun close the Convenience Store door and finish operations, Yu Tae-poong let out a quiet laugh.
“If you hired part-time staff, you should be thinking about running night shifts. Doesn’t look like you’re serious about making money.”
If Lee Hye-eun could only work daytime hours, Kim Un-hyun should take the night shift and operate the Convenience Store longer.
But Kim Un-hyun, whose attention was on Lee Hye-eun rather than the Convenience Store business itself, was only running daytime operations. His calculation was that this way he could spend more time with Lee Hye-eun, and the losses from reduced operating hours could be quickly recovered once he married her.

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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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