An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 138

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

Chapter 138
Part 7. There’s Something in Our Family, They Say (2)
‘There’s something in our family, they say.’
I recalled the first words Kim Young-chan had spoken to me.
The Dog Spirit hadn’t emerged recently.
It had existed long before—a malevolent curse targeting Kim Young-chan’s entire household.
—Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!
The old woman’s Victim Spirit, scurrying across the Living Room on all fours and mimicking a dog, was suffocating just to witness.
I forced the words out, my voice strained as I gazed upon the Victim Spirit that had never been given proper rites even in death.
“Did your mother suffer from dementia?”
“…Yes.”
It was because of my unwavering gaze fixed on something unseen.
Believing I was perceiving something, Kim Young-chan answered with tears welling in his eyes, while Kim Young-jun’s neck stiffened as he was gripped by the oppressive atmosphere, and he rubbed it nervously.
“And she mimicked a dog until her death?”
“Sob! Sob, sob, sob!”
Kim Young-chan crumpled to the ground, his eyes filled with dread as he looked up at me.
“I-is she still here? Is she still here with us?”
“Yes.”
“Ahhhhh!”
His wailing was so anguished that the word “heartbreaking” seemed insufficient.
Kim Young-jun was completely paralyzed by fear, unable to respond, while Kim Young-chan wept with his body curled into a ball.
“Master, please, I beg you—help my mother. Please, please!”
“Not yet.”
“Ahhhhhhh!”
“Once I drive away the Dog Spirit, everything will be resolved.”
She had been ensnared by a vicious Malevolent Spirit.
But the Dog Spirit, the root cause, had hidden its true form.
“I need to understand its nature. Why did it manifest?”
Kim Young-chan, still huddled and weeping, offered no answer.
Crash!
I shook the Shaman’s Bell vigorously and looked down at Kim Young-chan, asking again.
“Why did this dog appear—the one that bewitched your mother and brought calamity upon your household?”
“Sob, sob!”
Kim Young-chan, tears and mucus streaming down his face, lifted his head from the floor.
Meeting his gaze, I spoke with forceful conviction.
“What sin did your family commit!”
In that instant, even the flow of air seemed to cease.
A terrifying silence so profound I could hear the wall clock’s second hand ticking.
In that void, Kim Young-chan, who had been silent, parted his lips with an audible crack.
“My father.”
“What line of work was your father in?”
“My father, he… he…”
Kim Young-chan’s Adam’s apple bobbed visibly as he swallowed hard, his face contorting with surging emotion.
“He ran a Health Shop.”
A Health Shop.
Places you can still find scattered about even now.
Literally establishments that boil and sell things supposedly beneficial to health—and among these concoctions exists something called dog liquor.
Dog liquor is made by boiling a dog.
‘So that’s it. The grotesque appearance was because it had decomposed.’
Now it made sense.
Why the Dog Spirit that had appeared before Kang Hyung-seok looked so horrifying.
“Father said boiling a live dog made it more effective… so he would always take the dog alive, fresh, and throw it into the cauldron…”
That was when it happened.
Kang Hyung-seok’s eyes began to perceive what was not real.
Squeal! Squeeeal!
A massive cauldron boiling away.
And from within it, the agonized cries of a dog.
Kim Young-chan, who appeared to be a middle schooler, approached the cauldron with curiosity burning in his eyes.
Clang, clatter.
He removed the weights one by one from the cauldron’s lid,
And with a grinding sound.
He opened it.
Whoooosh!
“Aaaahhh!”
Startled by what erupted from the cauldron, Kim Young-chan fell backward, and a foul-smelling liquid splattered across the surrounding area.
Standing atop that liquid was a dog.
“Huff, huff! Huff-huff!”
Its fur falling out in clumps, both eyes boiled white.
Its lips curled back to reveal all its fangs—a demonic visage.
The dog stared at Kim Young-chan with eyes that had lost all focus.
“Ahhh! Ahhhhh!”
As the terrified Kim Young-chan screamed, a powerfully built man came rushing out.
“Y-Young-chan! Young-chan!”
“Father! Father! That thing, that thing!”
“Tch! Damn brat!”
As if it were nothing at all.
Kim Young-chan’s father seized the dog’s neck with his brutal hands.
Then, as if wringing out laundry, he swung the dog and slammed it against the ground.
Thwack! Crack! Thwack! Crack, crack!
Liquid and blood splattered everywhere.
Only when the dog’s tongue hung limp did Kim Young-chan’s father finally stop.
“Why are you so startled by this, you fool! Rinse it well and put it back in the pot.”
“Y-yes, Father.”
“And you, how many times must I tell you not to go near the pot because it’s dangerous!”
Kim Young-chan’s father brushed off his hands and left.
From the atmosphere alone, it seemed like a father disciplining his son.
Yet the dead dog lying on the floor was so grotesque that Kang Hyung-seok felt an uncanny chill.
‘So it was the dog.’
The melted dog.
A powerful resentment.
It targeted not just an individual but an entire family because Kim Young-chan was entangled in this as well.
“Father…”
Kim Young-chan’s sobbing voice pulled my consciousness back to reality.
“Father bought dogs from all across the country. Could that have been… the problem?”
I kept my lips firmly pressed together and shook my head.
Kim Young-chan couldn’t see it with his head bowed, but Kim Young-jun could.
Eyes filled with despair, not knowing what the truth was.
But I now knew the truth and the circumstances.
“Animal spirits are not easy to resolve.”
“Khhhhk!”
“They don’t understand speech. That’s why we cannot guide them to the afterlife through words alone.”
In Korean Shamanism, exorcism is fundamentally based on dialogue.
I will listen to your grievances.
Release that vengeful spirit and depart without lingering attachment.
This is the foundation, but animal spirits, like fetal spirits, do not understand speech, making resolution extremely difficult.
“Then… is there no way? What will happen to our son? What will happen to him?”
Kim Young-jun flinched in alarm, and I answered in a measured voice.
“There is a way.”
“Really?”
“But you must promise me something.”
It was after Kim Young-chan looked up at me with a face that said he could do anything.
“Your father has accumulated too much karmic debt. Both of you will need to accumulate good deeds throughout your entire lives.”
“W-we don’t care. As long as our family is safe, we can do anything. Anything at all.”
Not a shred of falsehood in their sincere hearts.
I nodded heavily and ran my tongue across my parched lips.
These people, too, are ultimately those caught up in this.
Merely that much.
Everyone else does the same.
Back then, everyone was like that.
The deeds committed then became karma that reached even their children.
“From now on, I will attempt to capture the Dog Spirit, so you two must follow my instructions.”
“Yes, yes!”
Kim Young-chan scrambled to his feet, while Kim Young-jun exhaled a hot sigh with his face buried in his palms.
“Kim Young-jun.”
“Yes?”
He lifted his head sharply at Kang Hyung-seok’s call, and Kang Hyung-seok pointed at him with his finger.
“You need to change your clothes first.”
“Oh, my clothes?”
“Yes. Since the Dog Spirit is blind, it will have a keen sense of smell. I will wear your clothes and deceive the Dog Spirit.”
Is this what a person dragged into the center of a shamanic ritual looks like?
Kim Young-jun stood motionless, bewildered yet terrified, when Kim Young-chan’s sharp command fell.
“What are you doing! Take them off quickly!”
“Factory Owner.”
Kang Hyung-seok’s calm voice drew Kim Young-chan’s attention.
“From now on, you must be careful with every breath you take.”
“….”
“I understand your urgency—this is for your son. But now you must remain composed.”
Kim Young-chan nodded with difficulty, breathing carefully.
Then Kim Young-jun removed his clothes, and Kang Hyung-seok also undressed and exchanged them with him.
Fortunately, aside from the shoulders and forearms being a bit tight, the size fit reasonably well.
“The kitchen is…?”
“Over, over there.”
Kim Young-chan answered as if drawing in a breath and pointed, and Kang Hyung-seok retrieved salt from the direction he indicated.
He then opened the lid of the salt container, closed his eyes, and held it with both hands as if in prayer.
“Heavenly and earthly deities, divine protectors, I humbly beseech the dissolution of all impurities.”
Kang Hyung-seok murmured softly, reciting sacred verses with sincere devotion.
‘These are innocent people. They suffer from the karma of their ancestors.’
Clink-clink-clink, jingle-jingle-jingle!
Shaking the salt container and the Shaman’s Bell, Kang Hyung-seok prayed with ever-deepening sincerity.
“I offer this devotion; descend swiftly and cleanse all impurities—heavenly impurities, earthly impurities, original impurities, household impurities, great impurities, threshold impurities.”
Kang Hyung-seok prayed to his Guardian Spirit.
‘If helping this family is the right path, and if it lies within your design….’
Protect them through your compassion.
Let no one shed tears.
Let no one grieve.
Guide the Dog Spirit toward resolution and liberation.
Jingle-jingle-jingle!
Kang Hyung-seok concluded his prayer and incantation by ringing the Shaman’s Bell loudly, then turned his gaze toward Kim Young-chan and Kim Young-jun.
“Now you two must enter the Sealed Room. You must not come out until I tell you it is done.”
Kim Young-chan nodded vigorously and led Kim Young-jun into the Sealed Room.
Without being told to do so, the figure locked the door from inside.
Whoooosh.
Kang Hyung-seok sprinkled salt directly in front of the door and exhaled through the gap.
Then, keeping his gaze fixed on the Entrance, he sat in a cross-legged position and placed the Shaman’s Bell and ritual knife on his knees.
Come.
I have no intention of denying the resentment the Dog Spirit harbors.
Yet I have no intention of affirming it either.
I will bear all grievances and hatred, so come to me, Dog Spirit consumed by your resentment.
Tick, tick, tick.
In the silence of the house where even the ticking of the wall clock was audible, Kang Hyung-seok waited endlessly for the Dog Spirit to appear.
When the clock passed 9:40 at night,
Wrang.
The Shaman’s Bell trembled faintly and rang out.
And a faint yet unmistakable scent brushed past the tip of my nose.
A fishy stench mixed with the reek of a beast.
Layered within it, a nauseating odor.
The scent of the Dog Spirit that had melted alive in a cauldron.
Patter, patter.
The sound of small, small four-legged footsteps drew closer to the Entrance,
Creak!
The firmly shut Entrance shuddered in the wind.
It appeared thus.
With eyes turned milky white and lips curled back, the Dog Spirit stared at Kang Hyung-seok from the shoe rack.

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