An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 12

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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 12
Part 4. What Must Not Be Seen (3)
The Shaman’s Bell is no ordinary object.
A sacred instrument that bridges the divine and the human.
Ordinary people rarely get the chance to even glimpse one.
Ding-a-ling! Ding-a-ling-a-ling!
As the reverberating sound purified the surroundings and drew me closer to the divine, I emanated an overwhelming presence that dominated the space.
Shin Jung-ah watched me carefully, startled by this unfamiliar sight, while the House Owner and the real estate agent kept their lips pressed firmly shut and averted their eyes.
Ding-a-ling-a-ling!
The violent ringing of the Shaman’s Bell pierced their ears with terrifying intensity, and they knew exactly what I was about to do.
Thwack!
As the crowbar in my grip drove into the door frame, they trembled violently as if nails had been driven through their hearts.
Screeeech!
The blackened nail was pried from the door frame.
Ding-a-ling! Ding-a-ling!
Shaking the Shaman’s Bell with even greater intensity, I extracted nail after nail that sealed the door.
By the time more than twenty nails lay scattered on the floor, I continued.
“The King of Death escorts the spirit, seventy years of human life, the great whale’s sorrow.”
I chanted the Sutra for the Departed as I swung the crowbar.
Thwack, screeeech!
“The form of fire and joy, a hundred years of divine existence, the glassy light now affixed.”
Thwack, screech!
“A hundred sinners, thirty origins are original sinners.”
Thwack, screeeech!
“Seventy origins are untimely deaths, and when untimely death strikes one down, worldly affairs are like floating clouds, and human fate flows like water.”
A sutra to comfort the spirit of the deceased.
A sutra to soothe the Victim Spirit who was murdered in this room.
A sutra to resolve the resentment of the Victim Spirit whose ascension the House Owner had blocked, fearing it might become a vengeful ghost that would harm future tenants.
Thwack, screech!
The sound of nails being extracted was as sharp as the death cry of the departed.
The House Owner exhaled deeply and collapsed onto the floor, while the real estate agent sat beside him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.
Thwack! Screeeech!
The final nail was extracted.
I shook the Shaman’s Bell vigorously and inserted my hand through the gap in the door.
Then I slowly pushed the door open.
Creeeeak.
Sunlight from just past noon streamed through the window, illuminating the dark room.
On the yellowed floor lay only white dust.
Yet understanding how the Victim Spirit had been sealed, I looked not at the floor, but upward.
Ding-a-ling-a-ling!
An empty ancestral offering table was embedded in the ceiling.
“He told me to arrange the ceiling like a floor….”
Beside the House Owner, who was breathing rapidly, the real estate agent’s trembling voice spilled out.
“That way the Victim Spirit can’t harm people…. So that’s why it’s like that….”
Kang Hyung-seok stared silently at the ceiling where the offering table was embedded.
I already knew they had done exactly what the Shaman instructed.
What I was seeing was an image flooding into my mind.
It was the incident that had occurred in this room.
“A mother-son relationship, then.”
“Ahhhhh!”
At my quiet words, the real estate agent gasped and covered his face.
“The son became twisted from gambling and drinking, yet the mother continued to care for him faithfully.”
I could see it in my eyes.
What had happened in this room long ago.
The Victim Spirit before me was showing me.
“Cruel. Because she wouldn’t give him money for alcohol, he did such a thing.”
“Uhhhhh! Hehehehe!”
I muttered, and the real estate agent wept while his body trembled violently, while the House Owner looked up at me with eyes filled with terror.
In their eyes, I was a Shaman.
A greater Shaman than the one who taught the forbidden method to trap ghosts.
I was a powerful Shaman who could see through everything they wanted to hide, everything they never wanted anyone else to know.
Clang-clang-clang!
As I shook the Shaman’s Bell, even the House Owner squeezed his eyes shut.
But closing one’s eyes doesn’t erase what happened.
“…How can a person be so cruel.”
The House Owner and the real estate agent.
And to the son who murdered his mother, I spoke.
‘Oh, Mom. Mom?’
The son, who had committed the act in a fit of rage, came to regret it too late.
But his action was not repentance.
‘Damn it, damn it! Why, why! Ah, shit!’
The son was terrified.
He feared the punishment he would receive more than murdering his mother.
So he did what he should never have done.
Thud, thud-thud-thud! Squelch!
It can’t look like my doing.
Crack, squelch! Thud!
Absolutely, it can’t look like my doing.
Thud! Squelch!
With eyes gleaming with madness, the son hacked at his mother’s body.
He desecrated the corpse with brutal savagery, even shattering the window glass.
He staged the house to look like a robbery had occurred, then fled.
But he did not know.
His mother’s breath had not yet ceased.
Even with her eyes gouged out and her face slashed beyond recognition, she crawled slowly toward the door her son had left open.
Like something dragging itself across the ceiling.
Screeeech, screeeeeech.
She dragged her body forward with both arms before her breath finally stopped.
“I’m… I’m sorry, Shaman.”
The House Owner’s face had turned ashen, his trembling lips squeezing out words.
“I was afraid. Terrified. A person died so brutally here, and every tenant says they’ve seen a ghost. What was I supposed to do?”
“It was not a vengeful spirit.”
At Kang Hyung-seok’s words, the House Owner’s expression loosened.
“…What?”
“It was not a ghost harboring resentment. It was merely a Victim Spirit seeking only ascension to the afterlife.”
The Victim Spirit had not resented the son who murdered her.
“Her heart must have been that vast. She harbored no grudge against anyone, yet you confined her based on your own misguided assumptions.”
Both the House Owner and the real estate agent bore expressions of profound shock.
It was not only the son who had committed atrocities.
These two had also done something unforgivable to the Victim Spirit.
“Ah… ah, oh no.”
The real estate agent collapsed, all strength draining from his body, while the House Owner bowed his head with lips pressed firmly shut.
Kang Hyung-seok turned away from them in disgust, grasping the Shaman’s Bell.
Now that he understood the full story, only one task remained.
To console this Victim Spirit.
Clang-clang-clang-clang!
As the Shaman’s Bell rang like thunder, the House Owner’s and real estate agent’s tightly sealed lips trembled, and Kang Hyung-seok opened his mouth.
“Pitiful soul. Whom shall you turn to for solace?”
I gazed at the Victim Spirit huddled upon the ceiling.
Her form was as eerie as the ghosts that had tormented me until now.
Yet what stirred in my chest felt different.
Clang! Clang-clang!
I knew her story.
And so compassion surged forth before fear could take hold.
Therefore, I earnestly recited the scripture, hoping the Victim Spirit would ascend safely to the afterlife.
“Is not the transformation of evil into good the ascension of the spirit?”
This was my first time doing this.
Yet it felt peaceful and somehow familiar.
As though this were my destiny.
“The flowers that fall in the spring wind bloom again in bright spring; the green grasses beneath the willows remain verdant through endless years; the moon that waxes full in the night sky wanes again and rises once more.”
Screech, screech-screech.
Drawn by the Shaman’s Bell and the incantations, the Victim Spirit descended along the wall and onto the floor. Then, passing by Kang Hyung-seok, it emerged into the luminous Sealed Room.
“Return to the palace of eternal dwelling, and may your spirit find peace in the heavens.”
The spirit looked like someone who had yearned to bask in light for an eternity.
“Ride the clouds of white mist, and ascend to the celestial realm.”
Then, as if melting into the light, the Victim Spirit’s form gradually dissolved away.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Confirming that the spirit bound to this house for so long had finally been liberated, he concluded the incantation in a low voice.
“Return to the Pure Land, and be reborn into enlightenment.”
Silence fell.
Shin Jung-ah watched Kang Hyung-seok with her lips slightly parted, while the House Owner and the real estate agent hung their heads like criminals.
Was the emotion they felt guilt?
Or was it fear of the karma they would receive going forward?
Kang Hyung-seok put away the Shaman’s Bell as he observed them.
“The Victim Spirit has departed.”
The House Owner swallowed hard, and the real estate agent pressed his palms together.
“M-Master, I’m sorry. I only did what the Shaman instructed.”
“Y-Yes, that’s right. And as for us, aren’t we victims too?”
Perhaps because the Victim Spirit had departed.
The House Owner, who had been gripped by terror, continued speaking with shameless audacity despite his confusion.
“The person died violently, didn’t they? We were trying to protect the tenant—that’s not a sin, is it?”
“What? Are you serious?”
Shin Jung-ah narrowed the space between her brows and raised her voice.
Knowing his own words lacked justification, the House Owner couldn’t even meet her gaze.
“Listen! I let it slide before, but you never told me this place was like this!”
“…”
“Why would that person be here? It’s because I can see ghosts!”
“…That’s…”
“Speak! You have a mouth!”
It was after Shin Jung-ah cried out loudly, speaking on Kang Hyung-seok’s behalf.
Kang Hyung-seok exhaled a sigh through his lips, shook his head, and met the House Owner’s gaze.
“You will face punishment.”
The House Owner’s face went rigid, and fear flooded back into his eyes.
“…What?”
“For the tenant’s sake? No. You confined the Victim Spirit because you feared the property value would plummet, because you feared rumors would spread.”
“…”
“You should have asked the Shaman to perform a proper rite of ascension. But you did not.”
You only wanted the ghost to stop appearing.
That was what the House Owner had asked of the Shaman.
“Accept the karma you have earned.”
At Kang Hyung-seok’s words, the House Owner’s pale face hardened.
His shoulders sagged heavily.
He couldn’t even bring himself to ask how to avert the calamity.
“I’m… sorry.”
That was all he could manage to say.
“I’m truly sorry.”
Kang Hyung-seok pressed his lips together firmly as he watched him, then grabbed his backpack.
“You don’t owe me an apology.”
With one last look at the House Owner still bowing his head and the broker’s hand on his shoulder, he turned toward the entrance.
Shin Jung-ah hurried after him.
“H-hey, Hyung-seok.”
“Please work things out well with those people.”
Kang Hyung-seok opened the driver’s door and faced Shin Jung-ah.
“Whether you move or continue living in that house, those people will do whatever you want.”
That way, the karma they must bear might become a little lighter.
Shin Jung-ah’s lips trembled slightly before she nodded faintly.
She had so much she wanted to say, yet couldn’t find the words.
Watching Shin Jung-ah convey countless questions through her eyes alone, Kang Hyung-seok shook his head.
“I’ll see you at the Company, ma’am.”
So treat me normally too.
Don’t look at me as a stranger like you are now.
Just treat me as a fellow department member—that’s what makes me comfortable.
That was the firm meaning embedded in his words.
“…Yeah, I understand.”
Shin Jung-ah spoke with a face that showed complete understanding.
Kang Hyung-seok conveyed his gratitude through his eyes, got into the car, moved his backpack to the passenger seat, and started the engine.
Vroom.
As he pulled out of the alley, he watched Shin Jung-ah through the rearview mirror.
She remained exactly where the car had been, not taking a single step, watching him leave.
“Sigh.”
Kang Hyung-seok exhaled heavily and turned the steering wheel with a deeply contemplative expression.
This was my first exorcism since Changgwi.
I had no choice but to have much on my mind.
Yet I soon shook my head, casting away the excess thoughts.
It seemed like the only way to find any peace.
***
The ritual had ended.
Two musicians packed away their instruments, while Chung-geum, who had assisted with the ceremony, carefully folded the five-colored silk ribbons.
A sour stench hung in the air.
It came from the vomit-mixed blood scattered across the floor.
“Thank you. Thank you so much, Master.”
The middle-aged woman bowing with clasped hands to Lee Geum-kyung was the one who had commissioned the ritual.
“The ancestral spirit has departed now, so everything should be fine. You’ve endured considerable suffering.”
The middle-aged woman bowed deeply to Lee Geum-kyung, who was comforting her.
An ancestral spirit had possessed her son.
It was not a benevolent one.
For three years, her intelligent and kind son had become half-mad.
“If it weren’t for you, Master… we…”
The middle-aged woman, gripping Lee Geum-kyung’s hand, trembled like an aspen leaf.
She had left nothing undone for her son’s sake.
She had performed rituals, used talismans, and once on a moonless night, she had even found her ancestor’s grave and bitten a blade while striking her head until it bled, pleading desperately.
Her gratitude was overwhelming.
Yet the middle-aged woman trembled like an aspen leaf because she had to speak words too difficult to bear.
“I’m truly sorry to say this, but regarding payment…”
She had taken such a long, winding path to reach Lee Geum-kyung.
She had squandered so much money that she couldn’t afford to pay for the ritual right now.
The shame and remorse were so acute it felt as though a kitchen knife had been driven through her throat.
A soft sound.
Lee Geum-kyung, understanding her plight, took the middle-aged woman’s hand in her own rough yet warm grasp.
“That’s enough. Your grandmother said to wipe away your tears.”
“…What?”
“The ritual fee is settled. Once your son regains his strength, just feed him well. He’s suffered harshly, so he needs plenty of nourishment.”
The middle-aged woman stared at Lee Geum-kyung with wide eyes, then her face crumpled as tears came.
She collapsed and grasped Lee Geum-kyung’s hand tightly.
“Thank you. And I’m so sorry.”
“That you sought me out—isn’t that fate?”
Lee Geum-kyung spoke warmly while comforting the middle-aged woman.
“Come now, stand up. A mother shouldn’t show weakness before her child.”
Lee Geum-kyung consoled the middle-aged woman for a long time.
She was a Shaman.
A person who lived on the boundary between the divine and the human.
Though she followed the will of the gods, her eyes must always be turned toward people.
She could not abandon those in desperation, and if she did, her tutelary spirit would not remain silent.
“Master! We’ve finished organizing everything.”
At Chung-geum’s words, Lee Geum-kyung embraced the middle-aged woman and patted her back.
“I’ll be going now. Take care of yourself.”
“Sob, sob-sob!”
Lee Geum-kyung wiped away the tears of the weeping woman and climbed into the van with Chung-geum.
The musician drove, and a neatly organized box of ritual implements was placed in the trunk.
“Are you alright?”
“You mean about not getting paid for the ritual?”
Lee Geum-kyung, who had seen through what Chung-geum was worried about, smiled faintly and shook her head.
“What goes around comes around. One day it will be repaid with something good—so why worry?”
It wasn’t just about monetary compensation.
Good fortune, good people, improved relationships.
Things money cannot buy often come as repayment.
And sometimes that repayment goes not to oneself, but to those around you.
Lee Geum-kyung considered Kang Hyung-seok, like a son to her, receiving the divine blessing and obtaining the Shaman’s Bell, a sacred artifact, as repayment that had returned to her.
Chung-geum’s lips curved upward in a smile as she spoke.
“Will the young master live as you do, Teacher?”
“He’ll do better than me. He’s a child who will wipe away the tears of thousands and earn the respect of all.”
Exhaustion washing over her, Lee Geum-kyung crossed her arms and closed her eyes.
“But if ever you need my hand, you must lend your strength.”
“Understood.”
“You rest too. You must be tired.”
Soon Lee Geum-kyung drifted into sleep with shallow breaths.
Then Chung-geum reached back and pulled a blanket forward, draping it over Lee Geum-kyung’s body.

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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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