An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 14

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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 14
Part 5. There Are Many Shamans Like Lumps of Mud (2)
“What the hell is that bastard doing?”
Gwak Young-ho, who had no fondness for Noh Su-chul, muttered in an unusually sharp voice.
“Looks like he’s scattering something?”
Namgoong Min-ah tilted her head and offered her observation, while Lee Jin-pyung simply stared blankly ahead.
Among them, Kang Hyung-seok focused intently on Noh Su-chul’s hand movements.
It was night, and the distance obscured the details.
But I could tell he was scattering something.
‘Wait a minute… that…’
At first, I thought he was discarding loose trash from his pockets.
But looking closer, I realized he was scattering coins.
“Perfect. Manager Lee! Go bring him here!”
It was the moment Lee Jin-pyung was about to move obediently as Gwak Young-ho commanded.
“I’ll go.”
“You… Manager Kang?”
Gwak Young-ho’s eyes flickered with bewilderment in that instant.
He knew that Kang Hyung-seok had every reason to dislike Noh Su-chul.
“I’ll be right back.”
Kang Hyung-seok bolted toward Noh Su-chul before anyone could stop him.
As Kang Hyung-seok rapidly disappeared into the distance, Shin Jung-ah furrowed her brows while looking at Gwak Young-ho.
Her gaze questioned why he was running with such a serious expression, but Gwak Young-ho merely gestured to explain that the two of them weren’t on good terms.
However, that wasn’t the only reason.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
As I sprinted forward at full speed, something glinted in my vision.
The coins Noh Su-chul had scattered.
Smack!
I kicked one into the storm drain and rushed toward Noh Su-chul, opening my mouth.
“Noh Su-chul!”
There was no need to use formal speech with a retiree.
Especially not with someone toward whom I harbored only ill feelings.
Noh Su-chul lifted his head, saw Kang Hyung-seok, and went pale like a child caught doing something wrong.
“Damn it!”
Noh Su-chul shoved the coins he’d been about to scatter back into his pocket and began running in the opposite direction.
“Oh? Money.”
As I was about to chase after him, someone emerging from the convenience store bent down to pick up a coin.
“Don’t pick that up!”
I shouted sharply, stopping them in their tracks.
Then, watching Noh Su-chul’s back as he ran ahead with a jingling sound, I ground my teeth.
‘Insane bastard! What the hell are you doing?!’
There had to be a reason why Noh Su-chul fled the moment he saw me.
He was scattering money everywhere.
What unemployed person throws money around like it’s rotting away?
Everything has its reason, but the problem was that his reason was sinister.
‘Dividing misfortune! The madman!’
It was a method widespread throughout East Asia.
Taking the calamity meant for me and dividing it with others—sharing my own misfortune.
Perhaps the terror of being hunted by Changgwi had frightened him so deeply that he wanted to distribute his own impending calamity, but regardless of his reasons, the act itself was abhorrent.
This could be considered a form of cursing by proxy.
In other words, a curse.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
“Ugh!”
Noh Su-chul spun around at the sound of my footsteps, gasped for breath, and bolted into the Commercial Building.
He fled straight to the Underground Parking Lot and only gave up after reaching the second basement level.
There was nowhere left to run, the parking lot was surprisingly spacious and well-lit, and there were no places to hide.
“Huff! Huff! Gasp!”
Noh Su-chul—the man who always mocked and insulted me—was now breathing so frantically and desperately that I barely recognized him.
“Y-you! Huff! Why, gasp, gasp, are you chasing me?”
Noh Su-chul spoke between gasps, trying to maintain his bravado.
While he was dying from breathlessness, I had already composed myself with ease, running my tongue across my dry lips.
“What have you been doing?”
“You? You bastard—!”
“You know we don’t need to be polite.”
I spoke while suppressing my emotions.
This was a side of myself I never showed at the Company.
For a moment, Noh Su-chul flinched, but then he recalled the version of me from the Company and crudely reached out to grab me.
“Arrogant bastard!”
I caught his hand before it could seize my collar and kicked out.
Thud!
With a satisfying sound, Noh Su-chul crashed hard to the ground.
“Aaaagh! Ow! Hey! That’s assault, you bastard!”
“Then report it.”
My voice was cold, and Noh Su-chul’s face drained of color.
The Underground Parking Lot of this Commercial Building was so dilapidated it seemed unlikely to have CCTV.
There weren’t many vehicles either, and there appeared to be no dashcams to record him.
“I only held back because you were my workplace superior, not because you intimidated me into submission.”
Noh Su-chul swallowed hard and nodded quickly.
Then, sprawled out on the ground, he shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out his wallet.
“Deputy Manager Kang, I… I’m sorry, okay?”
Rustle.
Noh Su-chul pulled all the bills from his wallet.
Though the stack of bills looked thick, most were thousand-won notes, so it didn’t seem like it would exceed 150,000 won.
“Think of this as an apology. For my sake, just take it.”
Kang Hyung-seok exhaled lightly, his breathing still not completely calm, as he stared down at the bills.
Clang-clang-clang!
The Shaman’s Bell in his backpack rang out as if warning him absolutely not to accept those bills.
“You still don’t get it.”
“…What?”
“This is money you spat on.”
Bills that had been spat upon and dried to transfer the curse.
Noh Su-chul flinched, confirming that Kang Hyung-seok’s prediction was accurate.
“Ah, no, I mean. What….”
Noh Su-chul’s pathetic excuses didn’t register in my ears.
This man was consistently repugnant in the worst way.
His very being was revolting.
At the office and outside it alike.
Terrified after glimpsing a ghost, trying to pass his curse onto others, and even now attempting to dump the largest curse onto me.
Every single action was consistently vile and filthy.
Whoosh!
I grabbed Noh Su-chul by the collar with my left hand and slammed him against the parking structure pillar.
Thud!
Fear spread across Noh Su-chul’s face as it struck the pillar.
“It’s going to hurt.”
I spoke curtly, then drove my knee up into his ribs.
Crack!
“Ugh!”
Noh Su-chul, having taken a direct hit to his liver, couldn’t even scream—his mouth just gaped open.
Clear saliva dripped from his mouth as I forced him back up when he tried to collapse, my fists clenching.
Crack! Thud! Smack!
The thighs and shoulders.
Striking only non-vital areas that wouldn’t leave marks was the bare minimum of courtesy.
Smack! Crack! Smack! Smack!
Because the first area he’d been hit was agonizing, Noh Su-chul could only make strangled, choking sounds—no proper screams.
I beat Noh Su-chul as mechanically as possible.
I had to suppress my emotions.
Otherwise, Noh Su-chul would spend the rest of his life drooling and grinning like an idiot whenever he saw food.
Crack! Thud!
“S-stop. Please stop.”
When I released his collar, Noh Su-chul slid down the pillar.
“Ugh, cough-cough.”
Noh Su-chul, gagging and retching, wore the expression of someone whose pride had been shattered.
Kang Hyung-seok exhaled hot breath and rubbed his hands, causing Noh Su-chul to flinch and shield his head.
‘Damn bastard. If you’re going to become this docile after just a few hits, why do you act like such a fool in the first place….’
Whoooosh.
After releasing a long sigh to suppress his rage, he glared at Noh Su-chul and opened his mouth.
“Get up.”
“U-ugh, ugh ugh.”
Thud!
Kang Hyung-seok silently kicked the pillar.
“Ah! Ugh ugh!”
Noh Su-chul scrambled to his feet with a pained expression, and Kang Hyung-seok’s lips twisted as he looked at the scattered bundles of cash on the floor.
“Where did you hear that? That spreading money around like this divides the curse?”
“I-I found it on the internet….”
It wouldn’t be the truth.
The way he was gauging my reaction told me that much.
When I twisted his collar again, Noh Su-chul trembled and lowered his head.
“You went to the Shamanic Temple, didn’t you?”
“U-ugh ugh.”
“Noh Su-chul, you saw me that day.”
Noh Su-chul lifted his trembling face with difficulty and met my gaze.
That day referred to the day he was chased by Changgwi.
The Mist-shrouded Mountain.
The terror of Changgwi descending upon him.
The frantic running at the boundary between life and death.
It was something that couldn’t be forgotten even if one tried.
Naturally, including the fact that he’d saved his life thanks to me holding the Shaman’s Bell.
“I don’t need you to tell me. You learned the method of spreading money at the Shamanic Temple to divide the curse, didn’t you?”
Noh Su-chul, now with tears forming at the corners of his eyes, slowly nodded.
“You pathetic bastard. Even if you hadn’t divided it, it would’ve been a curse you didn’t need to bear. Why are you blocking your own path forward! You stupid fool.”
Kang Hyung-seok spoke in a voice heavy with suppressed rage.
Noh Su-chul would never know.
That there was no curse worth dividing in the first place.
So this fool had only amplified the karma he should have borne through his pointless actions.
The beating he received from me would seem trivial compared to the massive karma that would return to him.
“W-what are you saying?”
Noh Su-chul’s face showed he understood nothing.
That was so pathetic and frustrating.
It was like dousing your entire body in oil to extinguish a fire that wasn’t even burning, yet not even realizing what you’d done.
Now even the smallest spark of karma would return to Noh Su-chul in a massive form.
“This is what a fraudulent shaman did to you, you bastard!”
There’s a saying that only about ten percent of shamans can truly be called genuine.
And among those, how many would be both skilled and virtuous?
If a true shaman is like a pearl hidden in mud, then Noh Su-chul had fallen victim to a shaman who was nothing but a lump of mud.
“A, a charlatan shaman? No, no! What are you talking about?”
Watching Noh Su-chul speak as though he didn’t believe me despite his obvious fear, I exhaled slowly.
Then I released my grip on his collar.
“From here on, you’re on your own.”
“…What?”
“I’ve told you everything I can tell you.”
If Noh Su-chul had been even remotely decent.
If he hadn’t divided the curse among us.
If he hadn’t tried to dump the largest portion of it onto me, even though the effect wouldn’t be that significant otherwise.
“I’m done with you. Go to that Shamanic Temple and perform a ritual or buy talismans—do whatever you want.”
There was no one left to help Noh Su-chul now.
Even if he sought out the charlatan shaman again, he’d only be drained to the marrow.
Tap, tap.
As I turned to leave, Noh Su-chul reflexively reached out his hand.
He knew I could help him.
But the bare minimum of conscience and his unbending pride sealed his lips shut.
It was as Noh Su-chul stood watching me recede with a vacant expression.
Buzz!
I answered the incoming call from Gwak Young-ho and brought the phone to my ear.
(Deputy Manager Kang, why are you taking so long?)
“My apologies.”
(Did you meet with Chief Noh?)
“Yes. We finished talking, and I’m heading back now.”
(He didn’t try anything funny or anything like that…?)
“No. There’s nothing to worry about.”
(Good. I was getting worried since it took so long. And he didn’t say anything about wanting to come back or anything like that, right?)
I was aware that Noh Su-chul was still watching me.
But I deliberately didn’t turn around.
“No, sir. He didn’t.”
(Well, if he had any shame, he wouldn’t say such things! If he calls later and says anything strange, tell him the report has already reached the director, so even if he clings to your pant leg, there’s no position for him to return to!)
Noh Su-chul truly had nowhere left to turn.
Thinking such thoughts, I nodded heavily.
“Understood.”
(Hurry up. The coffee’s getting cold.)
Click.
I opened the Emergency Exit door and disappeared.
Meanwhile, Noh Su-chul, who had been watching me the whole time, hung his head low.
The pain that surged through me was not from where I’d been struck, but from an emotion far too complex to put into words.

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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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