An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 149

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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 148
Part 4. It Was a Stake (1)
Clink.
A cup of coffee was placed before me.
It sat on a dining table whose broken glass had been patched up with clear tape, and the cup itself was far from clean.
“Thank you.”
Still, appreciating the gesture, I lowered my head in gratitude and lifted the cup.
“You’re Na Sung-hwa, correct?”
“Yes, yes.”
Na Sung-hwa, seated beside me, nodded as if his head were on a spring.
A gaunt face. Thin limbs.
His clothing was equally unkempt.
Perhaps his life, like the fractured glass of that table, had been filled with cracks.
“I’d like to ask you something. I understand you worked with Kim Ki-ok before.”
“Yes.”
Na Sung-hwa answered as if gauging my reaction, and I scratched my furrowed brow with my thumb.
“You can speak freely. And the compensation will be provided separately by the person who contacted you.”
So please answer comfortably.
That was the meaning, and Na Sung-hwa’s head moved side to side.
“I don’t need money.”
“Pardon?”
“I said I don’t need money.”
Na Sung-hwa’s eyes shifted to meet mine, and there was something extraordinary in his gaze.
Not the eyes of an ordinary person.
These were the eyes of someone who had steeled himself with resolve.
“Kim Ki-ok. That’s not a person.”
I set down my cup and met Na Sung-hwa’s eyes.
He was still overly cautious, yet his gaze burned with an intensity that seemed almost unnatural.
As if he had been waiting for this moment for a very long time.
“What happened?”
“There was something.”
Na Sung-hwa answered with a forceful voice, his eyes hardening as he continued.
“A vicious person. It’s not just about squeezing subordinates—his nature is cruel, and he’ll do anything if it serves his purposes. There are even rumors that he killed his own mother.”
“…I’d appreciate it if you could be more specific.”
“From his youth, he was entangled with sorcerers.”
I know what you want.
Isn’t this what you wanted to ask me?
Na Sung-hwa’s eyes conveyed exactly that feeling.
“Even when I was there, it was the same. People called him a Shaman, but from what I saw, he wasn’t a Korean Shaman. A Japanese Onmyoji, I think they called it. He spoke Korean well, but his methods weren’t those of a Korean.”
I rubbed my teeth with my tongue, carefully considering my next question, while Na Sung-hwa spoke without hesitation.
“One day, I happened to overhear him telling Kim Ki-ok that a large building needed to be constructed. But under no circumstances could its purpose be revealed.”
At that moment, something flashed through Kang Hyung-seok’s mind.
‘The Factory…?’
A place where mountain ranges encircled like a folding screen, the earth was damp, and a fishy stench like the blood of beasts rose into the air.
It was certainly a location chosen by a Shaman with deliberate intent.
And then it happened.
Patter, patter, patter, patter, patter.
A man appeared, waving what looked like luxuriant tree branches made of pristine white paper.
‘This place….’
The surroundings were an empty lot, yet the terrain felt familiar.
It was where the Factory had been built.
Patter, patter, patter, patter!
The man waving bundles of pure white paper like what was called jicheon—Korean talismans—appeared to be Kim Ki-ok.
“He said that for Kim Ki-ok to prosper, the spirits had to be summoned.”
As Kang Hyung-seok witnessed the vision, Na Sung-hwa’s voice continued.
“A shrine had to be erected to suppress the spiritual energy of this land and connect Japan and Korea. That was the contract between that man and Kim Ki-ok.”
Kang Hyung-seok turned his gaze to one side.
There stood a figure in the pristine white kariginu robes of a Japanese Onmyoji, watching over Kim Ki-ok.
And beside that figure was a baby cradled in the arms of a young woman, its face concealed by white cloth.
Likely the Onmyoji’s Assistant or spouse.
“He said it wouldn’t be easy, that the spirits of this land wouldn’t leave it alone, that karmic retribution and divine punishment would follow.”
Even within the vision, as Na Sung-hwa’s voice continued, Kang Hyung-seok swallowed hard.
He could sense what he was about to say next.
“So he said a guardian spirit had to be created to protect his body.”
Rokurokuби.
The yokai that Na Sung-hwa spoke of, the one the Onmyoji had bound to Kim Ki-ok.
“He called that guardian spirit a stake.”
Kang Hyung-seok felt as though struck by lightning.
A stake, Rokurokuби’s elongated neck, the chopsticks inside the jar.
They all shared a common characteristic.
‘I see now. That’s how it all connects.’
Kim Ki-ok intended to sever the meridian of this land.
His true purpose was to drive a stake through it—to establish a Factory disguised as a shrine.
“No one believed what I said.”
The vision began to fade.
The surroundings returned to Na Sung-hwa’s House, and all trace of Kim Ki-ok vanished.
Instead, Na Sung-hwa appeared with hunched shoulders, eyes wide open, his head bowed.
“But how could I stay silent? If Kim Ki-ok was going to do something so terrible, how could anyone simply stand by and do nothing?”
Kang Hyung-seok ran his tongue across his parched mouth and managed a stiff nod.
Then Na Sung-hwa’s gaze fixed upon him.
“Do you believe what I’m saying?”
“Yes.”
“…Truly?”
Na Sung-hwa posed the question with a hint of doubt.
Still, Kang Hyung-seok nodded solemnly.
“I believe you. Because you found the courage to act.”
Na Sung-hwa had lived his entire life carrying secrets he could never share with another soul.
He may have thought it hopeless, that despair was all that awaited him.
Yet he summoned the courage to do what he could.
“….”
Na Sung-hwa pressed his lips together tightly, then clenched his teeth.
His protruding jaw trembled.
His eyes squeezed shut, and the hands resting on his knees began to quiver before spreading wide, gripping his thighs with desperate force.
“Hhh! Hup! Whoosh… thank… thank you.”
How long had he longed to speak these words?
“Th… thank you. Thank you. For believing in me… thank you.”
Kang Hyung-seok watched Na Sung-hwa in silence.
Though he had not drunk the coffee, a bitter taste lingered on his tongue.
Na Sung-hwa was a noble man.
He had waited through long years for this moment, his heart gnawed away by the weight of doing what was right.
Unable to live as others did.
While Kim Ki-ok, who sought to harm the nation, strutted about like a tycoon without consequence.
“There exists something called karma.”
Na Sung-hwa lifted his trembling head, his eyes glistening as he looked at Kang Hyung-seok.
“Karma is so cruel that even words spoken aloud, without action, become karmic debt.”
Kim Ki-ok’s karma was far greater than he realized.
“You have accomplished something great. The world may not recognize it, but your sincerity has reached me.”
“Nngh, ugh.”
“Your courage may not be rewarded immediately. But remember this.”
Kang Hyung-seok continued in a measured voice, his gaze fixed on Na Sung-hwa’s back.
“You have created great karma, and that karma will become merit for you.”
Just as Kim Ki-ok had bound a yokai as his familiar spirit, Na Sung-hwa too had a guardian spirit.
That guardian spirit’s power was considerable.
Enough to clear his path when the day came for Na Sung-hwa to step into the world.
“I will carry your information deep within my heart.”
Na Sung-hwa’s body trembled.
He said nothing.
He simply bowed his head, letting thick tears fall one or two drops at a time.
Clink.
Kang Hyung-seok drank the coffee Na Sung-hwa had prepared for him.
Of course, instant coffee.
It was old, the taste was rough and it smelled, but none of that mattered.
“Thank you for the coffee.”
Kang Hyung-seok rose to his feet, watching Na Sung-hwa, who still couldn’t lift his head.
He glanced once at the guardian spirit protecting his back, bowed deeply in respect, and then slipped out of the house.
Thud.
With the door closed behind him, his expression grew heavy with thought.
Still, now I understood the intention clearly.
‘Stop Kim Ki-ok.’
And his mother, who had become Rokurokuби.
I would save her as well.
With a clear objective now set, I walked through the alley and pulled out my phone.
Ring, ring, ring.
“It’s me. I just finished talking.”
I relayed everything that had just happened to Shin Yoseph as I walked toward the car.
***
Tap, tap.
Kim Ki-ok, gripping his cane, entered the Factory with an Attendant in tow.
The workers huddled at the entrance with their heads bowed as if they had committed a capital crime, but Kim Ki-ok didn’t even spare them a glance.
Only the second floor where the Altar stood.
Tap, tap, tap.
Ascending the stairs with the Attendant’s support, Kim Ki-ok’s eyes gleamed with urgency.
And they were twisted with rage.
“Hah—!”
He exhaled a sharp breath, as if venting his fury upon the shattered jar fragments.
“…I have no face to show.”
“Have you found out who did this?”
“We’re investigating.”
“Hah, damn them all.”
Clatter.
Kim Ki-ok swept the broken jar fragments aside with his cane, his face creasing deeply with wrinkles.
His eyes looked pained, as if the shattered jar were a part of his own body.
“This is exactly why I’ve always said you can’t trust these Korean bastards.”
“…My apologies.”
“And there’s nothing to gain by investigating the Village.”
The Attendant posed a careful question with only his eyes, and Kim Ki-ok supported himself by pushing his cane against the floor.
“It wasn’t the work of the Village people.”
“Then….”
The Attendant knows what kind of man Kim Ki-ok is.
From before, he was someone with keen intuition like one who had received a god, and it was through that intuition that he had climbed to his current position.
“Outsiders. Young men. Two of them.”
Kim Ki-ok gazed down at the footprints scattered haphazardly across the floor.
The thick-lined prints were from safety boots.
The workers had left them, though there were also prints that resembled sneakers.
Crack!
Kim Ki-ok’s white eyebrows twitched as he brought his cane down upon the footprints like crushing an insect.
“Audacious bastards.”
“Should we station people here at night as well?”
“Yes. Block them so thoroughly that not a single ant can slip through. And….”
Before the Attendant, who listened intently, Kim Ki-ok pointed his cane toward the Altar and the cat’s corpse still tangled in the electrical wires.
“Prepare it again. For the cat, don’t waste money—just catch one nearby or bring one from a shelter.”
“Yes.”
“Just focus until completion. Until completion.”
Kim Ki-ok turned his body toward the stairs.
The Attendant moved to his side to offer support, but Kim Ki-ok’s gaze shifted toward the direction of the Altar.
Silence flowed, and the stale smell of dust hung in the air.
In that place, Kim Ki-ok tilted his eyes toward the Ceiling and murmured only with his lips.
It will be fine, won’t it, Mother?
(It’ll be okay, right? 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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