An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 126

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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 125
Part 3. What to Believe In (3)
Beep.
After hanging up the phone, Shin Yoseph’s face bore the weight of far more thoughts than usual.
His trembling hands, veins prominent, quivered faintly, and his eyes wandered as if adrift in uncertainty.
“The Attendant has reached the outskirts of the Village.”
Deep within the Mountain.
A Temple stood there, surrounded by a Forest where verdant growth tangled and sprawled like an impossible knot of thread.
Kang Hyung-seok, who had summoned him to this place, pressed his lips thin and nodded, while Shin Yoseph exhaled a scorching breath through the gap and tilted his head back.
“I’m not sure. Is this right?”
His hesitation likely stemmed from being a Pastor.
Kang Hyung-seok drew a deep breath through his nose and turned his gaze toward the Village.
Soon the Attendant would arrive at that Village.
And he would move according to Kang Hyung-seok’s will, as Shin Yoseph had conveyed.
“I know. I do too. That this is reckless.”
I must shake the Cult Leader’s—no, the Shaman’s—heart.
I must force him to summon the god.
And then I must find the god’s hidden location and destroy it.
There is only one chance.
I cannot afford to make a single mistake.
“You said the Attendant is someone trustworthy? Has he done something like this before?”
“If it involves physical work, he’s good at anything.”
Then it should be manageable.
The task entrusted to the Attendant was to sow chaos in the Village.
‘It won’t be easy. It will be difficult.’
I’d heard he’d already come to this Village once to gather information.
His face was known, and since he’d fled with a woman, the Cult’s pursuit would be relentless.
The easiest way to break through all of this and create chaos in the Village was to start a fire.
“Fire draws attention thoroughly. And it will be somewhere with no risk of casualties.”
Shin Yoseph’s gaze followed, and Kang Hyung-seok furrowed his brow as he looked at the Village.
“Just think of it as a grand ritual.”
His voice was deliberately low, meant to inspire confidence.
Shin Yoseph’s expression showed reluctance, but he said nothing and gripped his phone.
Then he sent a text to the Attendant, asking earnestly for his cooperation.
***
Splooooosh.
The Attendant poured oil from a plastic bottle, constantly glancing over his shoulder.
A single car raced along the nearby highway, but fortunately it paid him no attention.
My heart trembles and my mouth grows parched.
The surroundings only amplify this feeling—nothing but an Abandoned Field stretching endlessly.
Click.
Sealing the bottle’s opening, he gazed toward the western sky.
An unnamed Mountain rose majestically from the earth, and directly above it hung the sun.
The sun sank lower, as if being drawn into the Mountain itself.
“Haaaaaah.”
He exhaled a tense breath like escaping steam, then retrieved a lighter from his pocket.
A small sound, the wind, the rustling of birds.
Sensitive to each and every stimulus, he pulled out tissue paper twisted into a rope-like shape.
He wrapped the tissue around a small stone, and as the sun completely disappeared and darkness fell over the area, he shifted his gaze toward where he’d poured the oil.
Click.
After lighting the tissue, he clenched his teeth and hurled the stone.
Directly at the spot drenched in oil.
The oil he’d poured over dry branches, grass, and straw made contact with the burning stone,
Whoooosh!
Flames erupted skyward.
In an instant, thick black smoke billowed upward, and the roaring fire bathed the Attendant’s face and clothes in crimson light.
“Hey! Hey!”
A human voice called out from a distance.
The Attendant glanced in that direction once, then hurled the oil-filled bottle into the flames and bolted away at full speed.
Whoooosh!
Black smoke rose from the clearing, spreading to fill the sky.
***
Wee-wee-wee-weeng! Wee-wee-weeng!
The wail of fire truck sirens filled the Village.
Though it wasn’t yet time for night to darken the sky, the acrid smoke seemed to be the reason for the gloom.
Creak!
Yu-ji, who had clearly rushed over, threw open the Church door and shouted with veins bulging in his neck.
“P-Pastor! Pastor!”
The Pastor stood with her back to the cross.
At her composed demeanor, Yu-ji flinched, then spoke in a voice strangled with tension.
“It’s chaos, Pastor. There are fires breaking out everywhere right now…!”
“I know.”
Hope and relief bloomed across Yu-ji’s face.
The woman whom he and others called Pastor possessed a remarkable power.
A power that could be called divine miracle.
The ability to heal people and pierce through hearts and pasts was not something an ordinary religious figure could possess.
I had expected her keen insight to shine through once more, but contrary to my hopes, the Pastor’s face had hardened.
“Pastor…?”
“Someone is setting the fires.”
Yu-ji’s eyes wavered with bewilderment as his face tightened.
“No, wait! Could it be that bastard Lee-sa…?”
The Pastor shook her head, her eyes opening sharply.
“What of the Education Center?”
Yu-ji, flustered, shifted his gaze outside the Church.
Quite far from here, in a Commercial Building with no signage, stood a facility called the Education Center.
It was a place where doctrine was taught, reserved only for the most devoted and reliable believers.
A place where truth and salvation could be obtained, precious as the heart itself—I had never expected it to be mentioned.
“…Should I cancel the education session?”
“Hurry.”
“Yes, yes!”
It was the moment Yu-ji picked up his phone to make an urgent call.
Wee-wee-weeng!
A fire truck, its siren wailing, sped past sharply not far from them.
Could there be a fire in this area too?
As Yu-ji stood awkwardly holding his phone, the Pastor’s lips pressed firmly shut.
Then, her eyes narrowing to slits, she murmured silently, her lips moving without sound.
***
Shin Yoseph and Kang Hyung-seok both saw the smoke rising from the village.
Three locations were set ablaze.
Checking my wristwatch, roughly twenty minutes had elapsed.
“…Just a little longer.”
Shin Yoseph nodded silently and turned his gaze back to the village, while I shook the Shaman’s Bell gently in one hand to calm myself.
‘The Shaman must summon the divine.’
Either summon the divine to find us, or uncover the cause of the fires.
Whoooosh—!
The air blowing from the village carried the acrid stench of burning.
I rubbed my parched mouth with my tongue, and just as Shin Yoseph held his phone, it vibrated.
A text from the Attendant.
“Wait!”
Shin Yoseph, urgently telling me to stop shaking the Shaman’s Bell, held the phone in both hands and read the message.
Then he turned and met my gaze.
“That building you saw—there’s no one there.”
“What?”
“You know, the photo you took and sent me.”
The village photograph I’d captured with a tripod on our first day here.
Among them was one suspicious building.
It had no signage whatsoever, yet it was where believers gathered—a place that had aroused my suspicion.
“The Attendant just texted. He’s there now.”
“People?”
“All gone. It’s empty.”
The surrounding area was a dead commercial zone, with residential blocks several blocks away.
And it appeared to be a place of considerable importance to the Cult.
I rubbed my canine tooth with my tongue and extended my hand toward Shin Yoseph.
To do on his behalf what he, as a priest, could not bring himself to do.
Click.
Taking the phone, I pressed the keypad and sent a message.
It was a request to handle that location as well.
Shin Yoseph silently pocketed the returned phone, and I gazed down toward the direction of the Church while drawing a deep breath.
And shortly after, black smoke began rising from where the Attendant was stationed.
***
“No, you mustn’t! Pastor!”
“Where are you going! Absolutely not!”
The Pastor shoved aside the believers blocking her path and rushed into the building.
It was the Education Center.
A fire had broken out in such a place during the hours when no one was present.
Thump-thump-thump!
The Pastor bounded up the stairs and burst through the door.
The fire wasn’t severe enough to lunge at her, but thick black smoke and the acrid stench of burning engulfed her.
“Pastor!”
“Bring her down quickly! What are you doing!”
Believers’ urgent voices echoed from behind.
Several believers grabbed her arms, insisting she must leave immediately, but the Pastor stared at the source of the fire with wide, blazing eyes.
The Ritual Platform.
The Ritual Platform she used to teach the believers was engulfed in flames, burning fiercely.
Water had been sprayed around it, so the fire hadn’t spread, and the only other damage was soot marks on the ceiling.
Yet the Pastor’s face trembled severely, tears streaming down her cheeks.
It wasn’t only the Ritual Platform that was burning.
Sacred symbols were also burning beneath the platform.
The scriptures inscribed with doctrine.
Symbolic objects including white cloth.
The very elements that constituted the Church were consumed by flames.
“P… Pastor?”
The believers, sensing something was terribly wrong with the Pastor’s expression, hesitated and stepped back.
And the Pastor bowed her head in silence.
Her clenched fists trembled.
***
Clang-clang-clang-clang!
The sudden ringing of the Shaman’s Bell seized Kang Hyung-seok’s attention.
It was not a sound only he could hear.
So Shin Yoseph also turned his head at the same moment, and Kang Hyung-seok slowly rotated in place, the Shaman’s Bell leading the way.
It was a divine artifact warning of danger.
Its ringing meant something perilous had appeared.
‘The Cult Leader has summoned the divine.’
The divine moves.
The moment Kang Hyung-seok, searching for that direction, pointed the Shaman’s Bell toward the Temple, a loud sound erupted.
Yet he also pointed the Shaman’s Bell in another direction.
‘Is it there? Is it here?’
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!
Slightly to the right of the Temple.
When he turned further right, the sound grew fainter.
Then that must be the place.
“Follow me!”
Kang Hyung-seok burst forward with a shout, and Shin Yoseph glanced back at the Village before pursuing him.
The smoke rising from the Village was rapidly dissipating.
It was natural, given how small the fire had been.
But what lay ahead would be like a great inferno.
Thud-thud-thud-thud! Screech, whoosh!
Even slipping on fallen leaves, Shin Yoseph quickly rose and stayed close behind Kang Hyung-seok.
Soon the Cult Leader would notice their location.
Everything had to end before their pursuers caught up.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
Passing the Temple, Kang Hyung-seok climbed the Mountain with the Shaman’s Bell in hand, breathing hard.
There was no path, and the dark Mountain made it all the more treacherous.
Yet Kang Hyung-seok ran as the Shaman’s Bell guided him.
Clang, clang, clang, clang.
Each time it rang, the Shaman’s Bell seemed to tell him he was moving in the right direction.
Clang-clang-clang-clang!
At the sudden loud ringing, Kang Hyung-seok looked around.
Two trees standing side by side like guardian posts caught his eye.
‘Is it there?’
Clang!
He confirmed that Shin Yoseph was following properly, then headed between the trees.
“Your phone! Shine it quickly!”
Shin Yoseph swiftly pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight, illuminating the space behind Kang Hyung-seok.
The light cast long shadows and brightened the area around Kang Hyung-seok as well.
And between the trees, he discovered a metal plate that would never be found unless examined up close.
Whoosh! Whoooosh!
Brushing away the fallen leaves, Kang Hyung-seok looked up at Shin Yoseph with the expression of someone who had finally arrived.
He too gazed down at the iron plate, his face rigid with tension.
The iron plate, fitted with a ring handle, was sealed shut like the very gates of hell itself.

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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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