An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 137

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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 136
Part 7. There’s Something in Our Family (1)
It was no ordinary Victim Spirit.
Through my spiritual sight, I could see one form.
But at least dozens of dog spirits were condensed within it.
Dogs melted away until no shape remained, swirling around the Dog Spirit like heat shimmer.
“Manager?”
Lee Jin-pyung spoke to me, but I couldn’t move.
Somehow the Dog Spirit was looking at me, and I was meeting its gaze.
An animal spirit.
Even as a Victim Spirit, its instincts remained—the moment I looked away, it might lunge at me.
“What’s wrong?”
Kim Young-jun looked at me strangely and was about to move toward the restaurant entrance.
Thud, thud-thud.
The Dog Spirit laughed, pulling its lips back until teeth and gums were fully exposed.
Its white eyes rolled and fixed upon him.
—Woof, woof, woof, woof!
The Spitz Victim Spirit bristled its back fur and barked sharply.
And at that moment,
Click.
I reflexively grabbed the bowl of salt.
Whoosh!
Then I scattered the salt toward the Dog Spirit.
Small grains of salt spread widely, some of it reaching the Dog Spirit.
It wasn’t coarse salt, nor was it blessed.
Yet salt possessed the power to repel impurity, and struck by it, the Dog Spirit simply froze in place.
Instead, its head turned toward me.
“Manager, why are you doing that?”
Lee Jin-pyung asked, unable to understand my sudden action, and I stood up.
The moment I grabbed the bag containing the Shaman’s Bell and the ritual blade, the Dog Spirit shuffled away toward the side of the restaurant.
“Haaah.”
The thick miasma clears.
Only then did I release the breath I’d been holding, wiping away cold sweat and shaking my head.
“It’s nothing. I must have been mistaken. Don’t worry about it.”
I hastily made excuses to Lee Jin-pyung, apologized to the restaurant owner, and stepped outside.
I looked around, but the Dog Spirit was nowhere to be seen.
‘What kind of creature was that….’
In all my years, I’d seen many dog-related Victim Spirits.
The Spitz attached to Lee Jin-pyung was one such being, but I had never once encountered a Dog Spirit like the one I’d just seen.
How on earth had someone come to harbor such a grudge against it?
Kim Young-chan and Kim Young-jun.
Their gazes shifted.
When I turned my attention to the two of them, Kim Young-chan’s face had hardened as if he sensed something amiss, while Kim Young-jun appeared completely oblivious.
“Why?”
We’ll talk later.
I swallowed my words and turned my gaze toward Lee Deputy Manager.
“Lee Deputy Manager, please head inside carefully.”
“Aren’t you coming with me?”
“I need to see a friend nearby first, then I’ll head in.”
I had to separate these two from Lee Deputy Manager immediately.
“Ah, yes.”
“It’s late, so Lee Deputy Manager should hurry home. Don’t stop anywhere along the way.”
I guided Lee Deputy Manager toward the direction of the Subway Station with a smile, continuing to speak.
“I appreciate all the effort you’ve put in. You did really well today, so don’t worry about anything and get some proper rest. Rest is work too.”
Lee Deputy Manager’s face was expressionless, yet all his emotions seemed concentrated in his eyes.
“Thank you, Manager.”
“Take care!”
Lee Deputy Manager bowed his head and offered a brief greeting to Kim Young-chan and Kim Young-jun before heading toward the Subway Station.
Once he was out of sight, I approached Kim Young-chan directly and opened my mouth.
“I saw it just now.”
“Pardon?”
“I saw it. That’s why I sprinkled the salt.”
Kim Young-jun, standing right beside him, watched with a puzzled expression, as if thinking the conversation was taking a strange turn.
Still, explanation came first, so I continued speaking rapidly.
“We need to escort your son home first. I’ll accompany you and investigate the cause.”
“Y-yes, yes. Thank you.”
The sudden shift in the atmosphere and tone of the two men made Kim Young-jun’s brow furrow.
“Dad, who is this guy?”
“Just stay quiet. Let’s head home for now.”
“No, I just got back after so long, and I want to see my friends….”
“Let’s go home!”
At Kim Young-chan’s sharp rebuke, Kim Young-jun looked at me with a bewildered expression.
“What? What’s going on between you two?”
“For now, do as your father says.”
“Wait, wait a second. You’re not… surely not?”
As if something had occurred to him, Kim Young-jun frowned and glared at me with sharp eyes.
“You’re not a company employee, are you? I thought it was strange when you suddenly asked us to come to the Meat Restaurant, but was this all planned? You’re the one who told Dad to do those weird things, aren’t you!”
Kim Young-jun shot the accusation at me fiercely.
Everything he said was correct, but there was one thing he didn’t know.
Kim Young-chan’s concern was not baseless worry.
It was real, and if left as is, something terrible would inevitably befall him.
“I’m going crazy. Dad! How long are you going to be swayed by superstition? Come to your senses! Come to your senses! How sick and tired I am of this…!”
Crack!
With the sharp sound, Kim Young-jun’s head snapped to the side, and he stared at Kim Young-chan in disbelief.
“D-Dad?”
“You bastard! This man came to help you! And that’s all you can say!”
Kim Young-jun’s eyes trembled with emotion, his jaw clenching and unclenching.
“Damn it. Really! It’s all superstition! Please come to your senses! Please!”
He shrieked so loudly that passersby flinched in alarm.
Even the restaurant owner startled and rushed out, but Kim Young-chan gestured apologetically for him to go back inside.
Once the owner confirmed it was a family dispute and retreated with a worried expression, Kang Hyung-seok spoke.
“Kim Young-jun.”
Kang Hyung-seok exhaled through his nose and opened his mouth as he regarded him.
“I apologize that you were struck because of me.”
“…What?”
Kim Young-jun’s eyes widened in even greater bewilderment than when he’d been slapped, and Kang Hyung-seok continued in a low voice.
“Your father is very anxious. I understand he dislikes shamans, but there’s no time for this.”
Passersby glanced at them and continued on their way, and a group of people emerged from the nearby bus stop.
The atmosphere was utterly ordinary, befitting an apartment complex entrance.
Within that mundane setting, Kim Young-jun’s trembling lips formed words that were anything but ordinary.
“What is this shaman bastard doing.”
“Hey!”
Kang Hyung-seok silenced Kim Young-chan with merely a glance, then turned his attention to Kim Young-jun.
He nodded as if in understanding.
“You must have resented your father greatly for attending the shamanic temple. It’s been that way since you were in elementary school, hasn’t it?”
“What…?”
Kim Young-jun’s shoulders visibly trembled as he stared at Kim Young-chan in shock.
But Kim Young-chan had told him nothing, so he could only stand bewildered.
“Your father once hid talismans, didn’t he? And because of that, you were mocked by your friends.”
“What, what. H-How could you possibly…”
Kang Hyung-seok closed his lips briefly, then opened them again.
“In your shoe pouch.”
At those casually uttered words, the color drained from Kim Young-jun’s face.
And in that moment, Kang Hyung-seok raised his hand.
An empty palm, nothing in it.
Yet memories are shared.
And so Kim Young-jun felt as though the shoe pouch was resting in Kang Hyung-seok’s closed hand.
“What is this? Wait, there’s something strange in Young-jun’s bag.”
“Stop…”
In front of the restaurant where the air felt suffocating, Kang Hyung-seok continued speaking as he looked at Kim Young-jun.
“What is this? What is it? I don’t know. It came out of Young-jun’s shoe bag.”
“Please.”
It was a memory that only the person involved could possibly know.
A memory even Kim Young-chan didn’t know.
It was the memory Kim Young-jun most wanted to hide, the catalyst that made him despise Shamans, and something no Shaman he’d ever encountered could have known.
Rustle.
As Kang Hyung-seok moved his fingers, a sound that shouldn’t have been audible seemed to brush across my ears.
“A talisman.”
Kim Young-jun nearly collapsed.
Children possess a cruel streak—trivial incidents can spiral into ostracism.
In Kim Young-jun’s case, the catalyst was a talisman his brother Kim Young-chan had hidden in his shoe bag.
“W-what are you? Ah, Dad, what exactly is this person?”
Kim Young-chan’s mouth had also snapped shut, his expression frozen.
Fear was evident on his face, yet Kang Hyung-seok remained composed.
“I merely glimpsed it. If I startled you, I apologize.”
Kang Hyung-seok spoke with genuine sincerity, extending his hand toward Kim Young-jun.
“There is no time. We must go.”
Kim Young-jun let out a groan, and Kang Hyung-seok pointed toward the Apartment Complex.
We must leave. Now.
Understanding his meaning, Kim Young-chan exhaled sharply like someone who’d eaten something scalding, then began to move.
***
Beep, beep, beep, beep. Click!
Kim Young-chan punched in the security code and opened the door.
It was a typical bachelor’s apartment—a Middle-aged Man living alone.
Not cramped, but cluttered and poorly ventilated, the air thick and stale with mustiness.
The lingering smell of ramen, clearly cooked the night before, said everything.
Click.
As Kim Young-chan closed the door and lowered his gaze in embarrassment, Kang Hyung-seok stepped inside, murmuring an apology for the intrusion.
“Do you sense anything?”
Instead of answering Kim Young-chan’s question, Kang Hyung-seok set down his bag. Then, under the curious gaze of the two men, he unzipped it.
Whoosh.
Two sacred implements.
A Shaman’s Bell and a ritual knife.
At their sight, Kim Young-jun recoiled with a terrified expression, and Kim Young-chan’s lips pressed firmly together.
‘He’s a real Shaman.’
From his earlier display and overall presence, Kang Hyung-seok felt fundamentally different from the Shamans I’d encountered before.
Not a charlatan. A genuine Shaman.
Kang Hyung-seok stood there with his sacred implements—someone I’d always desperately hoped to meet just once in my lifetime.
“Since it is night, I shall conduct this quietly, but I must ask for your silence as well.”
The two men unconsciously nodded at Kang Hyung-seok’s gaze.
Warang.
Immediately after, the Shaman’s Bell rang out.
From the living room at the center of the rental house, Kang Hyung-seok rang the Shaman’s Bell toward the entrance, his hand holding the ritual blade moving back and forth in deliberate motions.
“Heaven and earth shine bright, heaven and earth in harmony, yin and yang purified, sun and moon and stars purified, white tiger of the upper gate purified, spring summer autumn winter seasons purified, day and night purified, mountain purified, four directions purified.”
Reciting the purification scripture was meant to drive out any lingering spiritual energy that might remain within this rental house.
At the same time, I had to cleanse the murky atmosphere.
The true nature of the Dog Spirit entangled with this household.
And I needed to understand why it was targeting this family, and specifically why it had set its sights on Kim Young-jun.
“Human men and women coming and going purified, three killings of earth purified, outer colors and inner colors eight directions purified, the dead woman spirit water purified, five directions five emperors purified.”
Warang, warang, warang, warang.
As the scripture intensified, the Shaman’s Bell gradually swept away the spiritual miasma.
The two father and son, the targets of the ritual, squeezed their eyes shut in the suffocating atmosphere, and Kim Young-chan in particular gasped for breath through his mouth.
“East direction purified, east blue emperor purified, south direction red emperor purified, west direction white emperor purified.”
Kang Hyung-seok’s recitation slowed.
As the murky veil of impurity was washed away, what had been invisible began to reveal itself.
“…Factory Owner.”
“Yes, yes.”
“How did your parents pass away?”
“…What?”
Kang Hyung-seok kept his body still facing the entrance but turned his head to look at Kim Young-chan.
“Were dogs involved in the deaths of both of them?”
Kim Young-chan’s face drained of all color.
“How… how could you possibly know that?”
Kang Hyung-seok pointed the ritual blade toward the center of the living room.
To the eyes of the two men, nothing was visible.
But to my eyes, it was perfectly clear.
-Grrrrrrgh! Woof, woof, woof, woof!
An old woman was mimicking a dog.
With eyes rolled back white, just like the Dog Spirit I had seen in front of the restaurant.
An elderly woman in soiled pants, her teeth bared, crawled on all fours across the floor.
It was Kim Young-chan’s Mother.

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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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