An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 118

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 117
Part 1. Please, Just Trust Me! (1)
Clink.
Shin Yoseph set his coffee cup down on the table of his estate.
Three cups in total.
One for himself.
The other two for the people sitting across from him on the sofa.
Sip.
Settled deep into the sofa, Shin Yoseph brought the coffee to his lips, then shifted his gaze from the trembling woman to the man beside her.
“Tell me what happened.”
“Yes, well…”
One of my attendants.
Early thirties, male, with modest musculature and a rough demeanor that belied his surprisingly solid educational background.
“I brought her out hastily. I hope you’ll understand the circumstances warranted it…”
When Shin Yoseph nodded in understanding, the attendant’s mouth fell silent.
He clenched his fists resting on his knees, then cast a pitying glance toward the woman beside him.
“You’re safe here.”
The woman flinched in surprise, then forced herself to nod through her trembling.
Exhale.
Shin Yoseph released a deep sigh, his expression betraying a desperate need for a cigarette.
He already understood the situation well enough.
A young woman with an attractive appearance.
Extracted from a cult by an attendant, and terrified.
Only one word came to mind.
‘Trafficking.’
The depravity of cults lay not merely in their deception and theft of wealth.
Sometimes they took bodies, families.
Especially from young women—they took so much.
“This place is safe.”
Shin Yoseph spoke with the utmost gentleness.
He had undergone formal priestly training and had served as a priest.
His low voice carried a profound resonance that made the woman stop trembling, only to be overwhelmed by a surge of shame and rage that bent her head.
“Hngh! Sob! Hnngh…”
Shin Yoseph told the attendant to remain seated, then retrieved a sufficiently thick blanket and draped it over the woman’s shoulders.
He then brought out tissues and placed them before her, though she seemed too devastated even to wipe her tears.
“What happened?”
The attendant, receiving Shin Yoseph’s question, answered with an uncomfortable expression.
“It’s likely what you’re thinking. She was confined in a car. We were on the way back from… somewhere.”
Meaning she had already endured unspeakable horrors.
Shin Yoseph had many questions he wanted to ask immediately, but he swallowed them, unable to voice them with the woman present.
Instead, I carefully considered a less sensitive question before asking it.
“Were there any others?”
The question was directed at the Attendant.
But contrary to my expectations, it was the Young Woman who answered.
“…Y-yes, there were.”
Shin Yoseph and the Attendant’s gazes converged on her.
She pulled out a tissue and rubbed her face violently before lifting her head.
Such eyes were truly difficult to witness.
Eyes filled with venom, resenting everything in the world.
The burst blood vessels from crying made them all the more unsettling.
“There were… many.”
“Did they go to the Church Leader?”
The Young Woman swallowed audibly before shaking her head.
“Then… do you happen to know who it was?”
“The sub-leaders.”
Shin Yoseph’s lips tightened as he shifted his gaze to the Attendant. The Attendant was looking back at him with eyes that suggested he shared the same weary sentiment.
Sub-leaders.
Those beneath the Church Leader.
It meant the organization was firmly structured.
“Should we report this?”
“No, please don’t!”
The Young Woman grabbed the Attendant’s wrist with unsettling speed.
She looked up at him with bloodshot eyes, her lips contorted.
“Please, don’t. Don’t. Don’t.”
“…What?”
“Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t.”
The Attendant’s bewildered eyes turned toward Shin Yoseph.
But all Shin Yoseph did was wait until the Young Woman calmed down.
“May I ask why?”
The Young Woman exhaled sharply and shook her head vigorously.
“They know my home address. My family, all of them. They have our contact information.”
Shin Yoseph barely suppressed a silent sigh.
It was hellish—this moment, this space.
Yet this was commonplace.
Once someone entered a cult, their personal information inevitably fell into their hands.
That information became leverage, ensuring victims could never dream of reporting them, no matter what they endured.
Just like this Young Woman.
“…I understand. We won’t report it.”
Disappointment flickered across the Attendant’s eyes, while the Young Woman appeared relieved.
Thud.
Shin Yoseph clenched his fist so tightly his nails dug into his palm, forcing a gentle smile onto his face.
“Instead, stay somewhere safe. You can remain there until your mind settles. It’s a trustworthy place.”
“Y-you’re not… the police, are you?”
“No. It’s an orphanage.”
The woman bit her lower lip, letting out a whimper before releasing the Attendant’s wrist and covering her eyes again.
Shin Yoseph cast a glance at the Attendant signaling him to follow, then rose from his seat.
Click.
After closing the door, he faced the Attendant and pulled out a cigarette, lighting it.
“Ask Secretary Jo for the orphanage’s address and guide her there.”
“Yes.”
The Attendant’s lips trembled silently before he exhaled and bowed deeply.
“I apologize, Director.”
Shin Yoseph looked down at his crown, clicked his tongue, and turned his gaze toward the window.
He lit the cigarette and opened the window, exhaling smoke into the air.
“There’s nothing to apologize for.”
“But…”
The Attendant bringing the woman out was truly the right call.
Yet simultaneously, a problem had emerged.
The person I had secretly planted within the Church had fled with a believer, making it impossible to extract further intelligence.
The cult’s vigilance would only intensify.
“It’s fine. There’s nothing to apologize for.”
“Yes…”
“Take her once she’s calmed down. If she needs anything, tell the Nun there.”
The Attendant lifted his face, though the corners of his eyes drooped with shame.
“What should I do then?”
“For now, play with the children at the orphanage. Just don’t get too attached. They grow sad when you leave.”
“…Yes.”
Shin Yoseph held the cigarette between his lips and shook his head, walking down the corridor.
Beyond the door lies a woman who has endured unspeakable suffering.
I know her future.
I know all too well what she will face.
I’m not speaking of cult retaliation or such things.
Rather, I speak of wounds far more fundamental and inescapable.
Step, step.
Walking down the corridor with a sunken expression, I drew deeply on the cigarette.
‘She’ll wake every day to her own screams.’
Memories she wishes to escape will pursue her like shadows, wielding the blade of trauma indiscriminately.
It won’t be brief.
The time it takes to become numb even to that blade’s strikes.
Thud!
Without realizing it, Shin Yoseph struck the corridor wall with his fist, then exhaled a trembling sigh through quivering lips.
He bit the back of his hand to suppress the trauma rising within him, but it refused to subside easily.
Just as the woman harbored memories she wished to escape, so too did Shin Yoseph.
‘I cannot afford to fail now.’
This was the only possibility he had barely managed to find.
There was a demon he had to locate, and only by capturing that creature could he finally be freed from this nightmare.
Only then could he wake to a morning that did not begin with screams.
Crunch!
Fresh blood trickled from the back of his hand where his teeth had bitten deep.
Only then did Shin Yoseph manage to calm himself somewhat, his hollow gaze releasing his wounded hand.
‘This time is different from the past. Unlike before, I will not fail.’
The senior colleague whose death he had caused through his own mistake.
He had found a Shaman to fill that void.
Shin Yoseph walked down the corridor with weary steps, raising his phone to his ear.
He called Kang Hyung-seok, his only hope, and placed a cigarette between his blood-stained teeth.
***
Beep.
Kang Hyung-seok answered the call from inside his car.
He was still at the University, seated in the vehicle after concluding his meeting with Kim Jae-sik, preparing to depart.
“Hello?”
“It’s me. Where are you?”
“In the car.”
“It’s quiet.”
The engine was off because his mind was too muddled to drive safely.
Kang Hyung-seok took a sip of coffee, then cast his gaze toward the building where Kim Jae-sik was located.
‘It may not be sokushinbutsu after all.’
This was knowledge Kim Jae-sik had provided.
Sokushinbutsu was a practice performed in Japan’s Shugendo in pre-modern times, he had explained.
There was no reason the Baekbaek Church, which traced its origins to Donghak, would deliberately adopt the Japanese sokushinbutsu method.
‘Then could it have been taken from a mummified Buddha statue?’
In China, there are records of mummies being placed inside Buddha statues to create them.
That is what a mummified Buddha statue is.
In 2015, a mummy was discovered inside a Buddha statue created in the twelfth century, confirming it as a mummified Buddha statue.
There are actual cases of Koreans becoming mummified Buddha statues as well.
Kim Gyeo-gak, the eldest son of Silla’s King Seongdeok.
However, since he became a mummified Buddha statue in China, it is difficult to consider this a Korean case.
“Sigh—”
An unintended sigh escaped him.
His mind grew tangled.
Both sokushinbutsu and mummified Buddha statues had low probabilities, yet if he reached a conclusion favoring either one, it would mean China or Japan was entangled in this affair.
The scope of this situation is far larger than I initially thought.
(Why the sigh?)
“It’s nothing. Really.”
Kang Hyung-seok spoke while grimacing at the bitter taste in his mouth, and Shin Yoseph’s weak laughter came through the line.
(If the call is too difficult, we can talk later.)
“No, just tell me.”
(I sent an Attendant, but he came back with a Female Believer. She’s experienced something terrible and her mind is rather unstable.)
Kang Hyung-seok exhaled a sigh through his clenched teeth.
(I can’t see ghosts myself, but nothing strange seems to be clinging to her. Still, we need to do something about this quickly.)
There is one who suffers.
Kang Hyung-seok looked at the three dots marked on his palm.
A precept left by his Guardian Spirit, commanding him to act righteously.
Crack.
Kang Hyung-seok clenched his fist and spoke in a low voice.
“Just find me a way to get inside.”
(How far are you planning to go with this?)
This was vastly different from the cases he had been handling thus far.
Living people are entangled in this.
People are causing harm to other people.
Those who believe in falsehood are spreading calamity.
“I need to sever it completely. Make sure they can never operate again.”
(I can handle the legal aspects, but do you have a method in mind?)
Simply reporting this won’t resolve it.
It must be cut off entirely.
So it can no longer function as a religion.
“What are the elements of a religion?”
(Faith, ritual, community, scripture, believers…)
Shin Yoseph, who had been speaking, suddenly fell silent.
As if he understood what Kang Hyung-seok was thinking and how significant it truly was.
(…The object of faith.)
Kang Hyung-seok said quietly, “Yes,” and Shin Yoseph’s groan came through the line.
“There’s definitely something there. Once we eliminate that, everything will be resolved.”
If it were merely a cult, the leader would be the object of worship. But if not, then it would be something of a higher order.
A god, or a demon.
Something connected to what Shin Yoseph seeks, and what I saw in the revelation.
Is it an incarnate god or a descended god?
Eliminating that will resolve everything.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————