Goblin Library - Chapter 78

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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 78.

Yu Tae-poong quietly closed the book and looked at Dung Carrier Goblin. Dung Carrier Goblin was absorbed in reading, thoroughly enjoying the story.
I glanced ahead to see how much further he had to go—it looked like he’d reach the final scene in about ten more minutes.
Feeling the lingering resonance of the book’s ending, I moved toward the counter. After brewing the coffee, I filled a large cup with ice.
The refreshing sensation of soda lingered on my palate, so I craved an iced Americano to match that crisp feeling.
Once I’d prepared two iced Americanos, I brought one over to Dung Carrier Goblin.
Dung Carrier Goblin closed the book with a smile, his eyes still bright with focus.
“That was wonderful.”
I offered the iced Americano to the smiling Dung Carrier Goblin.
“It’s soda.”
“Huh? But this is an iced Americano?”
Dung Carrier Goblin looked at the coffee in the glass and spoke, so I laughed and pointed to the book.
“The story’s content.”
“Ah! Right, of course. It’s soda.”
Dung Carrier Goblin drank the iced Americano I offered with a refreshing gulp and smiled.
“When Kim Un-hyun visited his ex-wife’s workplace, it really felt so refreshing and cathartic.”
“That’s right.”

***

Kim Un-hyun stood alone in Tae-poong’s Apartment, his face blank. He didn’t know why Lee Hye-eun had disappeared, but the words scrawled on the paper made it clear that something had happened to him.
Yet he couldn’t recall what exactly had befallen him. If he’d been swindled, there should be some loss—money or otherwise—but he’d never lent her any money. In fact, despite his part-time wages being due in just a few days, she’d vanished without even collecting her own paycheck.
Then it struck him: what he’d lost during their relationship. The building! But since he’d transferred it to his parents rather than Lee Hye-eun, he just needed to get it back from them.
Kim Un-hyun tried calling his parents to demand the building’s return. But… they weren’t answering either.
He hurried to the Rural Area only to find his parents already gone. When he tracked down the owner of the house where his parents had lived, he received nothing but a barrage of curses.
“Who do you think you are, coming here like this!” the owner bellowed. Kim Un-hyun, seething with rage, was about to curse back and cause a scene… but the problem was that the house owner had grown sons.
When the sons brandished sickles and shrieked that they’d kill him, Kim Un-hyun had no choice but to flee the house like a frightened rat.
As Kim Un-hyun ran, the house owner taunted him from behind. He said that when Kim Un-hyun’s father had moved, he’d given him a large sum of money as thanks for letting him stay in the house without conditions all those years.
“He said he’d cut ties with you from now on. Smart thinking, that. Even beasts understand gratitude for being raised, but a wretch like you? I should think of you as nothing! Oh, and he said to remove the Convenience Store. If you don’t, he’ll enforce it by law, so handle it yourself!”
Only then did Kim Un-hyun realize he’d been thoroughly duped.
From the situation, it appeared his parents and Lee Hye-eun had conspired together.
Uncertain what to do, he decided to track down his ex-wife.
He figured that now that his parents had money, they’d be looking after their grandchild. If they had contacted her, he could find out where these two old people had gone.
When Kim Un-hyun arrived at the Restaurant run by his ex-wife, he kicked the door open with his foot.
Crash! Shatter!
He’d kicked so hard that the glass door shattered into fragments scattering everywhere.
Though he’d destroyed someone else’s establishment door, Kim Un-hyun didn’t care.
“Hey! Choi Jeong-hui! I—”
Kim Un-hyun’s face went rigid mid-shout as he was about to speak.
Men in black suits had stopped eating and were staring at him in unison.
“What’s this? Whose family are you from?”
“Is this an attack?”
The men rose one by one and began pulling out objects from their jackets—wicked-looking cleavers and three-section staffs that looked unmistakably menacing.
Kim Un-hyun sensed something had gone terribly wrong.
It was evening rush hour with plenty of customers, so he’d expected his ex-wife, flustered by his shouting and rampage, to grab him and nervously suggest they go outside to talk.
From there, he’d planned to intimidate her further and extract information about where the two old people had gone.
That’s why he’d burst in so roughly….
Never… had a gang’s dining gathering been part of his calculations.
“I… no, I just… came to pick up my wife….”
“The owner here is your wife?”
A middle-aged man with a raspy voice and a crew cut spoke, and Kim Un-hyun swallowed hard, shaking his head.
“No… that’s not it. I… I’ll come back another time….”
“What? Hey, grab him.”
“Yes!”
As the men rushed forward and seized Kim Un-hyun, he cried out.
“Why… why are you doing this! Hey!”
“You came in all swagger and confidence, so why are you whimpering now?”
The men holding Kim Un-hyun kicked the inside of his knees.
Thud!
“Aaagh!”
Kim Un-hyun screamed and fell to his knees, groaning in pain. A woman who appeared to be in her mid-thirties emerged from the kitchen.
Upon seeing the woman wearing an apron, Kim Un-hyun cried out urgently.
“Honey! Honey!”
At Kim Un-hyun’s cry, Choi Jeong-hui’s eyes narrowed.
“Honey? You’re the one who kicked out his wife and child, saying you’d live well alone! Who do you think you are calling honey!”
At Choi Jeong-hui’s cold voice, Kim Un-hyun spoke hastily.
“That… that is… honey, please just calm these gentlemen down a bit.”
Choi Jeong-hui let out a bitter laugh.
“You yelled at me, cursed me, and hit me… but you’re scared of these older brothers, aren’t you?”
“O… older brothers?”
“You think I don’t have older brothers? Isn’t that right, hyung?”
At Choi Jeong-hui’s words, the man speaking in dialect looked at Kim Un-hyun.
“Now that I think about it… you came in calling our Jeong-hui’s name, didn’t you?”
“Our… Jeong-hui?”
“Yeah. I made her my little sister. The way she works so hard alone seemed admirable.”
The man grabbed Kim Un-hyun’s hair.
Crack!
Though he only grabbed the hair, a sound like breaking bone echoed out. Kim Un-hyun screamed at the searing pain of his scalp being torn.
“Ah… it hurts! It hurts!”
“Just grabbing hair like this hurts this much… so why do you hit women?”
Then the man slapped Kim Un-hyun’s face with his palm.
Smack!
Though it was clearly a palm strike, it sounded like a fist connecting.
“Ugh!”
“See? Does it hurt or not? It hurts this much, so why do you hit women and cause all this trouble!”
Smack! Smack!
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
“Why do you lay hands on women but apologize to men? Huh?”
Smack!
The man swung his palm again and lifted Kim Un-hyun’s face.
“Why are you strong against women but so weak against men bigger than you? Aren’t you ashamed?”
Then the man clicked his tongue.
“Huh… crying? You’re crying just from getting hit a bit?”
The man grabbed Kim Un-hyun by the hair and moved toward the door.
Drag, drag, drag…
The man dragged Kim Un-hyun outside and threw him out.
Thud! Crash, bang, bang!
Looking at Kim Un-hyun thrown outside, the man spoke.
“I’m not even curious why you came. Don’t you ever come looking for our Jeong-hui again. We’re different from the police. We don’t file restraining orders. We just break your legs so you can’t come. Got it?”
“Y… yes, I understand.”
Kim Un-hyun answered through tears and hurriedly got to his feet. As he stumbled away, the Goblin Man called out to him.
“Hey.”
“Yes? Yes!”
Kim Un-hyun spun around in alarm, and the Goblin Man spoke.
“You’re going to pay for the door you broke, right?”
At the Goblin Man’s words, Kim Un-hyun frantically emptied everything from his wallet and held it out carefully. The Goblin Man looked at the sight and let out a hollow laugh as if astounded.
“What, do you think we’re thieves?”
Then the Goblin Man turned to look behind him.
“How much does it cost to fix a glass door like this?”
“Boss, I’ve done this kind of work before—it’ll run about 500,000 won to replace it.”
At his subordinate’s words, the Goblin Man counted the money by eye and furrowed his brow.
“This bastard was a thief after all. He breaks a 500,000 won door and brings 300,000?”
“I… I can transfer the rest through my account…”
“Forget it, you bastard.”
The Goblin Man snatched up the 300,000 won and spoke.
“20,000 is for medicine. Go get some red ointment on those wounds.”
“Th… thank you.”
Kim Un-hyun quickly turned and fled in a panic. The Goblin Man watched his retreating figure, then shifted his gaze to the shattered glass door and clicked his tongue.
“Tsk! What a mess… Hey, call someone to fix this.”
“Understood.”
One of the subordinates answered and pulled out his phone to call someone.
Meanwhile, the Goblin Man looked at Choi Jeong-hui. The woman who had stood firm with a cold expression just moments before was now slumped against the table, her face drained of all color.
The Goblin Man spoke in a far more courteous tone.
“He won’t be coming back again.”
“Th… thank you.”
“Not at all. And if that man happens to come back, don’t bother calling the police and complicating things. Just press the red button on the watch our people gave you. We’ll come handle it.”
“Yes.”
The Goblin Man gestured toward where Kim Un-hyun had been and spoke.
“Looking at that guy, you made the right call getting divorced.”
“It seems that way.”
The Goblin Man nodded and glanced around the store, then spoke to his subordinates.
“Alright, clean it up.”
“Yes, boss.”
The men retrieved cleaning tools and began tidying up the shattered door fragments and the scattered mess inside the store.

***

“Lim Sung-un is certainly meticulous. He must have known trouble would erupt, so he sent people to the Convenience Store in advance.”
Yu Tae-poong nodded at Dung Carrier Goblin’s observation.
“Exactly. He’s truly remarkable. There are no gaps in his defenses.”
“That’s precisely why he’s been handling these matters all this time.”
Dung Carrier Goblin continued while looking at the book.
“It’s not a problem for us Goblins, but the people Lim Sung-un faces are incredibly dangerous to humans.”
“That would be true. There are conglomerates, gangs, and politicians involved.”
“If there had been any gaps… he’d already be buried somewhere underground by now. Since he’s literally risking his life, he can’t afford to have any vulnerabilities.”
“Risking his life… he’s certainly come close to death before.”
Lim Sung-un had nearly been killed by a swordsman sent by the Daelyeong Group. Not only them, but everyone he faced possessed the means and power to kill one or two people.
“Anyway, I really enjoyed this episode thoroughly.”
“Right? Oh! But there should still be more episodes coming. There’s also the matter with the building owner.”
“But now that this incident is over, that story probably won’t be updated for a while, right? Since this is real-time.”
“That’s true.”
Dung Carrier Goblin gently stroked the book’s cover and spoke.
“I’m getting an overwhelming urge to write a book myself.”
Then Dung Carrier Goblin raised his hand.
Whoosh!
A laptop appeared before Dung Carrier Goblin.
“My writing urge is overflowing!”
After seeing such entertaining writing, Dung Carrier Goblin opened a Korean text file on the laptop and raised his hand, overwhelmed by the desire to write something equally engaging.
But nothing appeared in the empty air. Nevertheless, Dung Carrier Goblin pressed his hand against the void and waved it left and right as if adjusting a tablet screen.
“What are you doing?”
At Yu Tae-poong’s question, Dung Carrier Goblin spoke while gazing at the empty space.
“I’m looking at screens that record the protagonists in my novel.”
“Recorded screens?”
“As I mentioned before, we can’t always stay by the protagonists’ sides. So I attach goblin flames to them and watch. And right now, I’m replaying what those goblin flames have observed.”
“It has a recording function too?”
“It has to, so I can review it later.”
Even as he spoke, Dung Carrier Goblin was busy moving his hands about, searching for entertaining material to write.
‘So this is what being a writer is like.’
He too had written novels for fun when he was younger. And his motivation had been the same—after reading something entertaining, he’d wanted to write something that others would want to read.

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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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