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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Vine
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The moment he heard Gang-so’s words…
“…!”
Yoo Soon-tae froze for about three seconds. Then he lowered his head and sighed.
“Ah! I’m such an idiot!”
“Your love confession once is enough for me. I’ll send you upstairs before I hear another one.”
At Gang-so’s words, Lim So-young said with a laugh,
“Please. Do. That. Uncle Gang-so.”
“Alright.”
Gang-so replied to Lim So-young, skewering a sausage with his chopsticks and putting it in his mouth.
As always, the sausage was delicious, and the sweet and sour sauce made with ketchup and corn syrup was working miracles, even whetting his appetite.
After a while, Lim So-young brought out cups of instant coffee after they finished breakfast.
It was a drink that made you want more with each sip.
Ha-young stroked Kkorong and said,
“Kkorong, do you want some coffee too? But little ones like us shouldn’t drink coffee.”
At Ha-young’s words, Gang-so tilted his head.
“Why?”
“Don’t you even know that, Oppa? If kids drink coffee, they won’t grow taller!”
Gang-so looked at his coffee in surprise.
‘Could this coffee contain toxins that hinder a child’s growth?’
He turned to look at Yoo Soon-tae, who explained with a laugh,
“Coffee contains caffeine.”
“Caffeine?”
“Yeah, caffeine has a stimulating effect. Green tea and black tea also have those ingredients. You didn’t know?”
Of course, he didn’t know.
“Now that you mention it, green tea does wake me up.”
“But if a child drinks high concentrations of caffeine, would they be able to sleep? If they can’t sleep, of course, it’ll affect their growth.”
“Indeed! I see!”
“Did you go out this morning?”
Gang-so nodded at Yoo Soon-tae’s question.
“Yeah, I took a walk around the neighborhood. Even though it’s a holiday, my body stiffens if I just stay still.”
“You usually wake up around 4:30, right? So you went on a long walk?”
“No, I walked for about an hour and a half, and spent the rest of the time reading.”
“Reading? What book did you read?”
“A story about a woman obsessed with being the most beautiful, trying to kill her stepdaughter, who is her rival, and the stepdaughter’s fierce struggle for survival.”
“Is there such a book? What’s the title?”
“Snow White.”
“Pfft-!”
Yoo Soon-tae suddenly sprayed his coffee.
Whoosh-!
Gang-so quickly used his energy to stop the coffee Yoo Soon-tae sprayed in mid-air.
Thanks to that, he prevented the surroundings from getting dirty.
“Th-Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
Yoo Soon-tae wiped his mouth with a tissue.
“But was Snow White about something like that? Oh… that’s right.”
Ha-young said,
“Oppa, have you read ‘A Dog of Flanders’?”
“I haven’t read it yet.”
“I have, so I’ll lend it to you!”
Even though she was only five, Ha-young could read most fairy tales on her own.
She was considered a genius among the children at Seedling Kindergarten, being able to read picture books with twenty or so pages by herself.
Ha-young dashed to her room and soon returned with a hard-covered book with beautiful illustrations.
“Here! Read it!”
“Thanks.”
“Tell me when you’re done! I’ll lend you another book!”
She sounded so prim that Gang-so replied with a smile,
“Alright.”
Gang-so went down to his room on the first floor with the book Ha-young lent him and placed it on the low table.
“Shall I start reading then?”
Gang-so turned the thick cover and slowly began to read the book.
As he was reading, his eyes reddened without him realizing it.
“Nello! He’s such a hardworking child!”
He clenched his fists and swallowed back his tears.
“Sob! Nello! Patrasche!”
He couldn’t cry like a child, even though he was deeply moved.
Knock, knock.
Just then, someone knocked on Gang-so’s door, and the door opened.
Creak.
It was Yoo Soon-tae.
He was startled by Gang-so’s grave expression and asked urgently,
“Wh-What’s wrong? What happened?”
“I’m mourning the death of a child who was a victim of adult indifference and selfishness.”
“…”
And so, the day ended with reading.
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It was evening the next day.
The peacefulness of the regular closing day seemed like a dream.
“Honestly, the day after a closing day is the hardest.”
Gang-so nodded at Yoo Soon-tae’s words.
“That’s true. After all, humans adapt to rest most easily.”
Today, as always, many customers came, and it was a time of hard work as the money poured in.
Yoo Soon-tae, who had been slumped over a table, glanced at Gang-so.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
“Reading a book, using my free time.”
“What are you reading this time?”
“A book containing the lesson that one should be careful when agreeing to negotiations.”
“What’s the title?”
“It’s called ‘Brother and Sister Who Became the Sun and the Moon’.”
“There’s negotiation in that story?”
“There is. Isn’t the phrase ‘If you give me a rice cake, I won’t eat you’ a kind of negotiation?”
“…W-Well, that’s true.”
Yoo Soon-tae looked at the clock and got up.
“We should be starting the dinner service soon.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the phone rang.
Ring-!
“Yes! This is Yang Chun Gak. Two jajangmyeons? Is that Cheongsol Apartments, room 301? I’ll be right there!”
Gang-so grinned as he heard the order.
‘It’s Dong-soo’s house.’
Yoo Soon-tae, hanging up the phone, shouted towards Gang-so,
“We have a delivery!”
“Got it!”
A little while later, Gang-so arrived at Oh Dong-soo’s house and pressed the doorbell.
Ding-dong-!
“Who is it?”
“It’s Yang Chun Gak!”
The door opened, revealing Oh Dong-soo’s face.
“Hyung!”
“Fancy meeting you again so soon! The jajangmyeon is here!”
“Thank you!”
Gang-so put down the jajangmyeon in front of the door. Just then, he noticed a bookshelf across from the entrance.
There were about ten books on the shelf, and seeing them sparked his curiosity.
“Those books… can I borrow them if I want to read them?”
At that, Oh Dong-soo tilted his head and said,
“Those books… are incredibly boring, though?”
“Boring?”
“Yes. They’re textbooks. But if you want to borrow books, you can go to the library.”
“Library?”
Gang-so tilted his head.
‘I’ll have to ask Soon-tae about this place called a library.’
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If you were to ask where the largest library in Korea was, everyone would give the same answer.
Hero Library.
It was a library built near the Silver Tower to commemorate the hero who died during the Great Clash ten years ago.
The tall library, with five basement floors and twelve above-ground floors, was also the nation’s largest specialized library for awakened individuals.
“Is this… the place called a library?”
Gang-so marvelled at the very large library building.
“There was a place like this where I came from. A place where you could borrow and read books, but since books were so precious, only certain people could borrow them.”
“Really? But here, you can easily borrow books as long as you’re a member.”
“…How much is it per book?”
“What?”
“You must have to pay to borrow books, right?”
At that question, Yoo Soon-tae shook his head.
“Pay? What are you talking about? It’s free here.”
“What? You mean it doesn’t cost money?”
Gang-so was surprised by those words.
“It’s a place built and operated with taxes for the citizens of this country, so there’s no way they would charge money. Anyone who’s a citizen of our country can borrow books for free.”
“Such a… fantastic place exists!”
“Let’s go in.”
Yoo Soon-tae explained the rules of the library to Gang-so. For example, they had to walk quietly and shouldn’t make loud noises; it was about the etiquette one should follow in public places.
Soon they entered the library, and Gang-so was once again surprised by the sheer number of books filling each floor.
“So many books! This world is truly amazing!”
“Well, this is the place with the most books in our country… Is that surprising?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Let’s get you registered as a member first.”
They went to the desk on the first floor, and Gang-so registered as a member.
He could borrow up to five books at a time for two weeks.
After the registration, Yoo Soon-tae sat down on a bench on the first floor.
“Now, look around and choose five books you’d like to read. I’ll be resting here.”
“Why?”
“I get a headache just by looking at books.”
There were people like that even in the Middle Kingdom, and Yoo Soon-tae seemed to be one of them.
Gang-so decided to respect his decision.
“Alright. I’ll be back.”
Gang-so started to look around the library slowly, from the second floor.
The second floor housed general collections, starting with the 000s, the third floor had philosophy books, starting with the 100s. Uniquely, the basement floors, starting from B1, contained books related to awakened individuals, hunters, and monsters.
‘There are so many books on various subjects!’
Looking through the books, Gang-so finally reached the 10th floor.
The 10th floor had books related to history.
‘History… there are books on Korean history and world history.’
Just then, a book caught Gang-so’s attention. It was a book on “Chinese History.”
Before, Gang-so had asked Yoo Soon-tae about Chinese characters, and Yoo Soon-tae had told him that they originated in China.
So he had been vaguely thinking that ancient China might have been the place he came from.
Gang-so took out the book on Chinese history with a trembling heart and opened it.
Ancient Chinese Dynasties: Xia-Shang-Zhou-Spring and Autumn period-Warring States period…
Seeing this, Gang-so tilted his head.
The name of the country he knew was the ‘Jade’ Kingdom.
But no matter where he looked, he couldn’t find the name of the country he came from. Song Dynasty, Ming Dynasty… they were all unfamiliar names.
‘The characters used in China are definitely the same as the ones I used, but is it not the country I came from? Then where exactly did I come from?’
Gang-so’s worries deepened.
When he was young, his father had shown him something, calling it the family’s symbol.
But he couldn’t remember what it was. He couldn’t remember exactly what his father had said either.
“This is something your great-great-grandfather has kept for a long time. Someday… when you obtain it… you will be able to return to…”
Gang-so felt frustrated by the fading memory.
But he decided not to be hasty.
‘Someday, when the time is right, I’ll remember.’
Thinking so, Gang-so chose a few books that piqued his interest and went down to the first floor.
And he saw Yoo Soon-tae sitting on a bench in the lobby, dozing off with his arms crossed.
“Soon-tae.”
“…”
“Soon-tae!”
“Huh?”
Yoo Soon-tae, waking up, looked up at Gang-so.
“Did you choose your books?”
“Yeah, I chose these two first.”
“Then I’ll show you how to borrow them.”
That day, Gang-so mastered how to use the library.
Although the question about his origin remained, he was satisfied with his day as he learned about a place called the library where he could obtain knowledge.
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That night.
Gang-so was reading the books he borrowed from the library.
“Kkikyu! Kkikyu!”
Kkorong came into Gang-so’s room, climbed onto the desk, and tilted its head.
“I’m reading, so don’t bother me.”
“Kkikyu? Kkikyu?”
Kkorong looked at him curiously, and Gang-so replied,
“This is a book for you.”
“Kkikyu?”
Kkorong tilted its head and looked at the cover of the book.
It read, ‘A Guide for Dungeon Rats – My Dungeon Rat Has Changed’.
As the night deepened, Gang-so became engrossed in reading and lost track of time.
Thanks to that, he was able to adapt to his new world quite quickly.
Though sometimes…
It was obvious that he had learned things from books.
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