An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 108

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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 107
Part 4. Get Out of There Right Now (4)
“No!”
Director Kwon’s anguished voice tore through the air behind me.
But I swept away the crimson cloth in one fluid motion.
As the truth was laid bare, the Company Representative shut his eyes, the Manager turned his head away, and Director Kwon crumpled, his face contorted in anguish so raw it was almost pitiful.
“…Insane bastards.”
A mountain goat.
Its bones had been arranged with glue and twigs into the cross-legged posture of a Buddha statue.
What appeared at first glance to be black paint was blood.
Whoooosh!
I dispersed the malevolent aura emanating from it with the Shaman’s Bell and fixed Director Kwon with a glare.
“Where did you learn this filth? You’ve harmed innocent people! You dog!”
Director Kwon couldn’t even respond, only bowing his head deeply.
The blood coating the entire goat had accumulated in layers.
Each time a person was sacrificed, another coat was applied on top—so the dried blood clung to it in proportion to the number of victims.
Grit.
I clenched my teeth and drew the ritual blade.
This should never exist in this land.
As I unsheathed the blade, its polished surface caught the sunlight and gleamed, and the dull edge rapidly sharpened.
It gained the power to stand against malevolence itself.
Whoooosh!
I shook the Shaman’s Bell to request protection from the Guardian Spirit, then brought the ritual blade down upon the goat’s skull.
Crack!
The impacted skull clattered and fell away, and the ribs crumbled beneath the second swing of my blade.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
“Ugh, uhhhhh!”
The Company Representative stumbled backward with a pallid face, groaning.
Through Director Kwon’s sorcery, he had achieved much.
At first he had been skeptical, but later he became a true believer, and afterward the Altar became something he feared.
The Altar—both an object of faith and of terror—was crumbling beneath the hands of a stranger.
It seemed to him like a glimpse of his own impending future, and he shifted his trembling gaze toward Director Kwon.
But he too kept his head bowed, his parched lips quivering.
Thud! Crack! Bang!
I kicked the Altar over.
The employees startled and retreated at the loud crash, while Chae Young-sik clenched and unclenched his fists, his face awash with conflicting emotions.
This was the Altar meant to claim Chae Young-sik.
Watching it crumble unleashed an indescribable torrent of feeling within him.
Crack, bang-thud! Smash! Thud!
I toppled the Buddha statues on either side as well, then glared at the Altar, breathing heavily.
“Don’t think Shin Yoseph will be safe.”
Then, still in that position, I turned to Director Kwon behind me.
“You severed your own lifeline.”
The moment he did such a thing—perhaps even before that—Director Kwon’s lifeline would have been cut.
He had merely forced it back together.
A Shaman who has lost his spiritual power clings to darkness to forcibly maintain that strength.
In Director Kwon’s case, this Altar was such an existence.
“You’ll be punished your entire life. For a very long time.”
I turned to look at Director Kwon.
Though he still drew breath, he would understand what that meant.
It would have been better to die right now.
A great punishment from the divine comes swiftly, and the fact that it hasn’t arrived means an even greater punishment awaits.
It will be terrible.
Terribly so.
“Uh… uh… uh.”
Shifting my gaze from the trembling Director Kwon, who couldn’t even speak, to the Company Representative, I placed the Shaman’s Bell into my pocket.
Only the sacred blade remained in my hand, and the Representative flinched, but I sheathed the blade and opened my mouth.
“You won’t be safe either.”
“I… I only did what this man told me to…!”
Excuses are meaningless.
I fixed the Representative with the piercing gaze of a Shaman who sees through people, then placed the sacred blade into my bag.
“You know better than anyone that’s not true.”
“But…!”
“Everything you’ve built will disappear. The factory, your health, your family.”
The Representative’s face turned ashen, and he collapsed to the ground.
Finally, I turned my gaze to the Manager.
He kept his head bowed as if avoiding my eyes would be enough, but it meant nothing.
He had aided the Shaman.
Though not as severely as Director Kwon, his punishment would be far from light.
Thud, thud.
As I walked, no one tried to stop me.
The employees, knowing how fearsome a Shaman could be, stepped back as if to avoid me, while Chae Young-sik and Lee Ha-yoon watched with breathless expressions.
“Let’s go. It’s all over.”
I took them to the car and we got in.
The security guard seemed at a loss, but he couldn’t stop us and could only let the car leave.
Vroooom.
Inside the moving car, Chae Young-sik looked back.
Until yesterday—no, until this morning—it was a factory where he worked ordinarily.
But now it looked like a demon’s lair.
Staring blankly at the receding factory, Chae Young-sik’s fingertips began to tremble more and more.
‘How ridiculous must I have seemed for them to do this to me, to treat me this way?’
My lips twisted, and as self-loathing and hatred swelled within me, I clutched at my chest.
That was when it happened.
“This isn’t your fault, Chae Young-sik.”
“…What?”
“It’s not your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong to deserve what happened to you.”
Chae Young-sik stared at Kang Hyung-seok with widened eyes, while Lee Ha-yoon in the passenger seat blinked in bewilderment.
Even as she did, Kang Hyung-seok continued speaking in a measured tone.
“They failed to see the warehouse because they bewitched you.”
It was a common occurrence.
People would tour a house multiple times, fall in love with it, sign a contract—only to later discover a graveyard visible from the bedroom window, or experience something similar.
It could happen to anyone, at any time.
“They didn’t choose you for human sacrifice because you were foolish.”
You simply caught their eye.
Just as someone committing a random assault picks their victim based on nothing more than chance.
“But maybe it’s because I’m weak-hearted.”
“If I had to find a reason, it would have been your name.”
“…What?”
“Young-sik.”
Though the actual hanja differed, Director Kwon, being a Shaman, would have recalled similar characters from Chae Young-sik’s name.
Spirit—the hanja for spirit (靈).
Consume—the hanja for consume (食).
Combining these two characters creates the meaning “to consume souls.”
The moment Director Kwon saw Chae Young-sik’s name on the resume, he must have decided to feed the soul to the Altar.
“A name is not something you choose for yourself.”
Grrrrooooom.
Inside the car, where the heavy engine rumbled, Kang Hyung-seok’s voice continued, low and weighted with conviction.
“None of it was your fault. So don’t blame yourself.”
Chae Young-sik’s trembling lips contorted.
Then he covered his face with his palms, his shoulders shaking as he nodded with difficulty.
Lee Ha-yoon glanced briefly at the back seat, then turned her gaze forward.
Her friend was crying.
Unable to bear watching, she simply reached back and took Chae Young-sik’s hand.
Grrrrooooom.
Throughout it all, Kang Hyung-seok remained focused on driving.
As if determined to put as much distance as possible between Chae Young-sik and that factory.
***
Ding.
I answered the incoming call.
It was after dropping off Chae Young-sik and Lee Ha-yoon, and since I’d already taken a half-day at the company, there was no reason to return.
So I took the call from inside my car, parked at a cafe near my rental house.
“What?”
(You already went?)
“Where to?”
(The factory. I thought if you were around, I’d swing by and see your face.)
I could picture Shin Yoseph’s grumbling tone so vividly it was as if I could see his expression.
(That factory, you know. It’s a subcontractor that supplies materials to us. I went there deliberately digging around, manufactured something problematic to find.)
Even with all the windows closed in the car, the air felt oddly cold.
He didn’t say he’d found something problematic.
He said he’d manufactured it.
And he’d done it himself—Shin Yoseph, the successor of Shinjin Construction, the primary contractor.
(Since you already made a mess of things there, there wasn’t much to it. Just imposed some penalties and ended the contract. Spread some rumors around too.)
Listening to Shin Yoseph casually recount how he’d destroyed an entire factory, I laughed with an odd sense of understanding.
“So you were the punishment.”
(What punishment?)
“The punishment the Company Representative should receive. There were many problems there. From the representative to the director to the employees.”
(There was something strange you’d set up there too?)
I nodded with a bitter smile on my face.
“He needs to receive all of that punishment.”
Just because the Company Representative received punishment from Shin Yoseph doesn’t mean it’s over.
It’s only beginning now, and his end will be similar to Director Kwon’s.
Because the person who commissioned it—like a shaman conducting curses or human sacrifice—will also receive severe punishment.
(Hey.)
“What?”
(If any legal issues come up, let me know. I’ll have our legal team take care of it.)
It was reassuring, but it didn’t seem like I’d need it, so I chuckled.
“Never mind. Let’s just have a drink.”
I’d seen a crude altar and witnessed human depravity.
A bitter taste lingered in my mouth like I’d licked gall, and I wanted to wash it away with alcohol.
(Where?)
“I’ll come to you. I’m in my car.”
(Send me your location. Come on. Let’s have a drink together.)
“Are you going to grill bean sprouts and pork belly again this time?”
If so, I thought I might as well bring some bean sprouts and pork belly myself.
(No, I got something good this time. Do you like jamón?)
I think I’ve heard of it somewhere before.
“I’ve never tried it.”
“That’s good. Take your time coming over.”
I hung up the phone.
Then I stopped by the Cafe and grabbed a cold Americano, hanging it in the cup holder.
After starting the engine, I looked at the sun visible through the windshield before pulling out.
The streets were quiet and deserted.
It felt as though I’d been left alone in this world.
“Heh.”
I let out a breath-like laugh and punched the address Shin Yoseph had texted me into the navigation system.
Vrrrroooom.
The car began moving with a heavy rumble.
As I drove leisurely, sipping my coffee, my thoughts drifted to the Company Representative and Director Kwon.
‘Live decently for once. Wretched people.’
Life is shorter than we think.
We pass through it fleetingly, like a breeze.
Even when we cherish each other and live righteously, time feels scarce—yet so many choose to live uglily and wickedly.
The punishment they’ll receive won’t be light.
Vrrrooom.
Inside the moving car, I pressed my lips together with a heavy heart.
***
“Get out here! You bastard!”
After Shin Yoseph swept past, the Company Representative cursed at Director Kwon from inside the Factory.
All the employees had been sent home—the atmosphere was far too tense to operate normally.
The Factory felt as cold and empty as a school with all its students gone, and Director Kwon stood in front of the forklift with his face flushed crimson.
“What are you doing! Absolutely not!”
“Get out here! You idiot!”
Whiiiing!
The fork-like prongs at the front of the forklift rose up like a wild beast raising its front paws.
Yet Director Kwon had no choice but to block the Company Representative on the forklift.
He was trying to crush the Altar completely.
“We can start over! We’ll end up on the streets if we do this! Yes!”
“You broken-minded bastard! If only you hadn’t done that cursed thing!”
Even as Director Kwon’s eyes widened, the Company Representative didn’t suppress his rage.
It would have been different before.
He would have watched Director Kwon’s expression carefully, the one with that mysterious power, and would have cowered at his words.
Whiiiing!
The Company Representative moved the forklift as if to push Director Kwon aside immediately.
Yet when Director Kwon stood firm with his arms spread wide, the rage only intensified.
“Move! Before I kill you!”
“Come to your senses! Do you understand what this is, right now!”
“You bastard, should I gouge out your eyes? I would’ve lived normally if I’d just ignored your words! Damn it!”
“Who do you think you’re talking to? I lived better than others because of you! You said it was fine too!”
“What the hell, you bastard?”
The Company Representative’s eyes blazed with fury as he climbed down from the forklift, his mind going white.
He grabbed something from the forklift’s tool rack and swung it wildly, as if seized by a convulsion.
Crack—! Thud!
It was a hammer the forklift operator had accidentally hung there when hurriedly clearing out the employee.
Director Kwon, tumbling backward, struck his head hard against the materials stacked on the pallet and collapsed, blood slowly spreading across the surrounding floor.
“Ah, ah…?”
Only then did the Company Representative realize what he had done.
“K-Kwon! Director Kwon!”
He shook him desperately.
“Wake up! Damn it, Director Kwon!”
No matter how much he shook him, Director Kwon gave no response, and the Company Representative’s face went slack.
With blood-stained hands, he pressed them against the floor and collapsed into a sitting position.

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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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