READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Author: Cauldron Goblin
“Cauldron Goblin?”
Tae-pung tilted his head.
“Did a goblin write this book?”
Wondering if goblins wrote books, Tae-pung turned the page.
Cha Im-beom, with his usual cheerful face, was wiping down his fire suit.
Tae-pung continued reading. The protagonist of the book, Cha Im-beom, was a firefighter.
And this book dealt with his duties as a firefighter, his personal love life, and his relationships with people.
It was both entertaining and heartwarming, with stories of saving people and overcoming crises.
It was like watching the story of a hero in a disaster movie.
Tae-pung muttered unconsciously,
“This is interesting.”
[Interesting?]
At the question, Tae-pung nodded slightly.
“Yes, it is.”
As he spoke and raised his head, Tae-pung suddenly froze. He thought the goblin had come to talk to him, but… there was no one around.
“Huh? Mister Goblin?”
As Tae-pung looked around for the goblin, he heard the voice again.
[I don’t know which goblin you’re looking for, but I’m the Cauldron Goblin. The goblin who wrote the story you’re enjoying.]
Tae-pung was startled. Now that he thought about it, the voice was different from the goblin he knew. The voice he was hearing now was clearly a woman’s.
Unable to figure out where the voice was coming from, Tae-pung quickly looked around again.
[Oh, it’s no use looking for me. I’m somewhere else, and I’m talking to you through the book.]
“The book?”
[Yes, that’s right. A book can be said to be an author’s alter ego. So I’m talking to you through the book I wrote.]
Flustered by the explanation that she was talking to him through the book, Tae-pung looked down at the book for a moment.
‘Well, it’s a goblin, anything is possible.’
Quickly accepting it and shaking his head, Tae-pung asked,
“But… you said you’re the Cauldron Goblin?”
[Yes. I was born from a cauldron. It was a cauldron that had been used for four generations. The old ladies of that house cherished and used me well.]
Tae-pung looked at the book in wonder at the mention of a goblin being born from a cauldron.
“Then what happens if there’s another goblin born from a different cauldron?”
[Then that goblin is also a Cauldron Goblin.]
“So you have the same name?”
[It doesn’t matter if goblins have the same name. Even though things called tables all have four legs and a tabletop, they come in various shapes and sizes. So even if we have the same name, we can distinguish each other.]
The Cauldron Goblin said with a chuckle and then asked,
[Ah! But who are you? You seem to be human?]
“I’m Yoo Tae-pung, and I’m starting work at the library today.”
[I see.]
Although she asked, the Cauldron Goblin seemed uninterested and readily agreed.
Normally, in this situation, one would ask why a human was working at the Goblin Library.
[So, is my novel interesting?]
Tae-pung nodded at the Cauldron Goblin’s expectant question.
“Yes, I enjoyed reading it.”
[Oh, that’s good. I put a lot of effort into writing that one. I was worried that no one would read it because it would be buried among the writings of other goblins.]
At the clearly pleased voice, Tae-pung asked,
“Do other goblins write novels too?”
[Many do. Watching humans is more fun than watching dramas or movies.]
“Watching humans?”
Wondering what watching humans had to do with novels, Tae-pung asked, and the Cauldron Goblin replied with a laugh,
[Goblin novels are not based on imagination, but on observing and writing about humans in reality.]
“Humans in reality…”
Tae-pung muttered, not understanding what she meant, and the Cauldron Goblin explained,
[Cha Im-beom is a real person living in Mapo-gu, Seoul. We goblins observe real humans like this and write their stories into books.]
Tae-pung pondered the Cauldron Goblin’s words, then realized their meaning and said in surprise,
“So, this Mr. Cha Im-beom is a real person? Not a fictional character?”
[I told you, we write stories about real people. So of course he exists.]
“Then all the books here are…?”
[Not all of them. Some interesting books written by humans come here too. But most of them are books written by us goblins after observing humans and their stories. And Cha Im-beom, whom I’m writing about this time, is a really good subject. He’s excellent as a main character.]
The Cauldron Goblin, who had been speaking with a smile, changed her tone slightly.
[But there’s one annoying situation that’s been happening lately while I’m writing.]
At the slightly annoyed voice, Tae-pung cautiously asked,
“Situation?”
[Yes. It’s nothing else but… Ah! You saw that part, right? Where the cars moved aside for the fire truck.]
“I saw it. That part was good.”
The fire truck had to get to the scene as quickly as possible, but the road was blocked. Then, the drivers blocking the way systematically squeezed into the next lane to open the road for the fire truck.
Tae-pung felt both moved and entertained by that part.
“Ah! So that part was a true story too?”
[Of course. It really happened. The firefighters were really happy and proud of it at the time.]
A smile appeared on Tae-pung’s face as well. He was proud and happy just reading it in the book, so the firefighters who actually experienced it must have been even more so.
[I felt really good writing that part too. But the problem is, there are quite a few opposite cases as well.]
“Opposite cases?”
[People who don’t give way and instead block the road or get angry. Ah! And there are also those who take advantage of the cleared road to drive ahead of the fire truck.]
“Drive ahead of the fire truck on the road cleared for it?”
[They’re really bad people.]
“There was nothing like that in the book.”
As Tae-pung flipped through the book, the Cauldron Goblin sighed.
[Readers don’t like it when the story gets frustrating like that. Besides, it’s a waste of pages to allocate space to a passing character you’ll never see again. But now I have to write about those parts. So, I’ve come up with some ideas related to that. Why don’t you give me some ideas too?]
“Ideas? Me?”
[Yes, you’ve read my book. Tell me what you think would be good in this kind of situation.]
A little flustered by the expectant voice of the Cauldron Goblin, Tae-pung said,
“What kind of ideas did you have?”
[It’s simple. I wish the owner of the car blocking the fire truck’s way would get in big trouble.]
“How?”
[I don’t know that. Think about it as a reader of my
Tae-pung looked down at the book for a moment, lost in thought.
‘Something that would make the car owner who blocked the fire truck regret the most…’
Then, a thought suddenly came to Tae-pung’s mind.
“You know how they say watching a fire from across the river is the most fun.”
[That’s really fun.]
As the Cauldron Goblin agreed with a laugh, Tae-pung said,
“Wouldn’t it be satisfying if the house of the person blocking the road and causing a scene caught fire? They wouldn’t know their own house is on fire and would be blocking the fire truck heading to their own house.”
The Cauldron Goblin didn’t answer Tae-pung’s suggestion. It seemed like she was thinking about something.
And then…
Whoosh!
The pages of the book started flipping by themselves with a loud rustling sound.
Every now and then, the pages would stop and then start flipping again.
After the pages had turned about five times like this, the Cauldron Goblin’s voice was heard.
[Alright. This should be enough for the story.]
It was a cheerful voice, perhaps because she had decided on the story.
Hearing the Cauldron Goblin’s words, Tae-pung suddenly felt a sense of doubt.
“Um, you’ve decided on the story?”
[Yes.]
Tae-pung looked at the book with a worried expression. He had made the suggestion, but… after all, a house fire was no small matter. Even if it was the house of a bad person, if it really caught fire, it would feel like his fault. He wouldn’t feel comfortable.
“Are you going to start the fire?”
The Cauldron Goblin laughed at Tae-pung’s question.
[Am I going to start the fire? Are you asking if the author directly intervenes in the life of the human they are observing?]
“Yes.”
[What we want to see is an interesting story written by watching human life. But if we directly intervene, it takes away from the fun of the story.]
“Then do you intervene indirectly?”
[You understand well. That’s right. If we don’t like how the story is going, we create incidents.]
“Incidents?”
[Even if I say incidents, they’re like small events. And we watch the main character resolve the incident. Of course, things don’t always go our way… but wouldn’t that be fun in its own way?]
“But isn’t starting a fire too much of an intervention?”
The Cauldron Goblin chuckled at Tae-pung’s worried words.
[I don’t start the fire. I just check where the fire has started and create causality so that the bad-tempered homeowner heads towards the fire truck.]
Then, the Cauldron Goblin quickly added,
[And thanks for the good idea. Please continue to enjoy my book.]
With those last words, the Cauldron Goblin’s voice was no longer heard.
Tae-pung looked around and then tried to quietly put the book back on the shelf.
[Huh? Why aren’t you reading the book anymore? You haven’t finished it yet, have you?]
At the Cauldron Goblin’s voice, which was heard again, Tae-pung hurriedly pulled the book back and replied,
“I haven’t finished cleaning yet. I’ll read it after I’m done cleaning.”
The Cauldron Goblin said with a hint of regret,
[You should read a book all at once, if you stop in the middle, the flow is interrupted… Ask the Bamboo Sword Goblin for a goblin club. How are you going to clean this vast library every time without a club? Ah! No, wait. I’ll bring you one when I come to see my reader in a few days. Well then, clean diligently, my reader.]
The Cauldron Goblin left her greetings and didn’t send any more messages.
Realizing that the conversation was truly over, Tae-pung tried to put the book back on the shelf but sighed. Then he took it and placed it on a table in the reading room.
‘For that matter, I can’t even read a book comfortably.’
The novel
Moreover, this wasn’t pure fiction, but a story about a real person.
The goblins observed human lives for fun and wrote them into books… but Tae-pung felt uncomfortable, like he was peeking into someone else’s life.
If someone was peeking into his life, he wouldn’t feel good about it either.
Tae-pung looked at the book on the table for a moment, then turned his head towards the bookshelves. Looking at the countless bookshelves and the books placed there, Tae-pung licked his lips.
‘All the books here are stories about humans… and real people at that…’
Lost in thought, Tae-pung soon shook his head. Then he started to continue the cleaning he had been doing.
He had to move diligently to clean this vast library.
Tae-pung was wiping the bookshelves with a mop.
Swish! Swish!
“Still cleaning?”
At the goblin’s voice, Tae-pung turned his head. The goblin was standing there, looking at him, in the same appearance as when he left in the morning.
“The library is so big that it takes a long time to clean.”
At Tae-pung’s words, the goblin ran his hand over the nearest bookshelf.
Confirming that no dust came off, the goblin turned his head. He spotted the book on the reading room table and said,
“Have you seen the book?”
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