An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 170

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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 170
Part 3. As the Sea Mist Rolls In (3)
Clatter.
A meal table was set down in the Village Community Center.
It was a table prepared for Kang Hyung-seok and Kim Jae-sik, arranged at the Village Chief’s instruction by the Youth Leader.
“Please, help yourselves to plenty.”
The Youth Leader’s markedly different demeanor from their first meeting stemmed from Hong Kyung-soo’s hint.
“My goodness, you’ve prepared so much. Thank you so much.”
“Oh, please eat, and if you need anything more, just let me know.”
The Youth Leader bowed repeatedly to both Kang Hyung-seok and Kim Jae-sik before withdrawing.
The two of them sat alone with a single meal table in the spacious first floor of the Village Community Center.
“This feels rather burdensome.”
“I’ve never experienced anything like this before.”
“Indeed.”
Kim Jae-sik gazed down at the table with a thoughtful expression.
Had this meal originally been prepared for Hong Kyung-soo?
The pork ribs with well-cooked carrots hidden throughout, the soybean stew simmered with seafood—everything radiated meticulous care and devotion.
And now that table had come to Kang Hyung-seok.
It was their way of saying they were counting on him in Hong Kyung-soo’s stead.
“Let’s eat first. We can talk while we eat.”
“Yes.”
Kang Hyung-seok picked up a piece of kimchi first and placed it on his rice.
The bright red seasoned kimchi crunched satisfyingly.
“By the way, Hyung-seok.”
“Yes.”
Kang Hyung-seok swallowed his food hastily and responded, while Kim Jae-sik frowned and gestured for him to eat at ease.
“Eat while you talk, eat while you talk. But tell me, who exactly is this Hong Kyung-soo person?”
“Ah, he’s a Shaman who flays flesh. That’s why I said what I did earlier.”
“Ah, I understand now.”
Kim Jae-sik’s eyes now showed comprehension of why he’d been told to hide.
“Still, these villagers must be quite desperate. If they’d reach out to such a Shaman, they clearly don’t believe this is a natural phenomenon.”
“Yes.”
Kang Hyung-seok shared that assessment.
Glancing out the window, the sea mist had receded.
Instead, thick dark clouds obscured the sun.
So despite it being around 1 p.m. when it should have been bright, the sky hung dim and murky, and the heavy, viscous air pressed down upon the village with oppressive weight.
“Once we finish eating, I’ll take a look around.”
“Let’s go together.”
“Are you sure you don’t mind?”
“Why else would I have come down here just to get a free meal?”
That was a fair point, and Kang Hyung-seok broke into a hearty laugh.
After finishing the meal, I stood up once the Youth Leader waiting outside had offered me barley tea.
“You’re not uncomfortable, are you?”
“Oh no, not at all. This is far too generous.”
“Please feel free to ask for anything. And you can sleep here as well. I’ll bring you bedding and a pillow later.”
The Youth Leader had become a completely different person, and it felt unfamiliar.
It must have been because the situation was so desperate.
“And that….”
The Youth Leader squeezed out words that were difficult to say, pausing for a long moment before finally speaking.
“Would you come with me to the Livestock Farm first?”
“What’s there?”
At Kim Jae-sik’s question, the Youth Leader nodded silently.
Then he led the way toward the outskirts of the Village where the Livestock Farm was located.
Crunch, crunch.
Following behind, I unconsciously brought my hand to my nose.
“Why?”
Kim Jae-sik asked quietly, and I answered in an even lower voice.
“There’s a fishy smell.”
“A fishy smell?”
Kim Jae-sik sniffed the air, and indeed there was a briny scent carried on the wind from the Sea.
But I was referring to a different kind of fishy smell.
‘The smell of a Snake….’
A scent I had smelled once before when I saw a corpse.
Creak.
As the Youth Leader opened the Livestock Farm door, the stagnant smell came rushing out with terrifying force.
“Ugh!”
“We cleaned it, but the smell just won’t go away.”
I nodded, observing the thick plastic sheeting installed around the Livestock Farm as if it were wrapped in cellophane.
It wasn’t winter, so there was no reason to seal off a Livestock Farm like this.
“Be careful going in. If it’s difficult for you, you can wait outside.”
“No, it’s fine. I’ll go inside and look.”
Kim Jae-sik passed the Youth Leader and entered the Livestock Farm, with me following behind.
And then I saw it.
A clean Livestock Farm.
A floor without a single piece of straw or a drop of moisture.
“It’s strange, isn’t it? No matter how much we clean, the smell won’t disappear.”
“What exactly happened here?”
It was right after Kim Jae-sik asked the question.
“How did you dispose of the body?”
“Pardon?”
When Kang Hyung-seok spoke up, both men’s gazes snapped toward him with laser focus.
“The cattle. They collapsed with foam at their mouths—how did you handle all of that?”
The Youth Leader looked down at the floor, his voice trembling as he spoke.
“Ah, no, how could we possibly….”
“It was around 2 in the morning.”
“Pardon?”
“When the cattle died.”
“Oh, oh yes. Yes! That’s correct.”
As the Youth Leader answered in shock, Kim Jae-sik gazed silently at Kang Hyung-seok in admiration.
Even as this happened, Kang Hyung-seok continued examining the livestock farm, his lips pressed tightly together.
‘This happened at the livestock farm.’
It was certainly no ordinary occurrence.
“Did you, did you discover something else….”
Kang Hyung-seok turned his gaze toward the Youth Leader and signaled that we should leave this place.
The cattle had all been disposed of and cleaned up, yet this cursed stench clung like a Malevolent Spirit, suffocating the very air.
Click.
After the door closed, Kang Hyung-seok opened his mouth to the Youth Leader.
“The cattle didn’t die from disease.”
“…Then this is connected too?”
“The cattle were affected first.”
I could see it clearly.
At 2 in the morning, in this dark livestock farm, the cattle suddenly screaming and collapsing with white foam at their mouths.
“You didn’t consume any of the cattle or anything like that?”
“Of, of course not! The Village Association issued compensation, and we buried all the cattle properly.”
Wondering if something had gone wrong, the Youth Leader answered while trembling.
“Thank goodness. If you had consumed them, it would have been catastrophic.”
“Ah, no, what exactly is the problem? What is doing such terrible things to our village?”
Pitiful.
That voice.
Desperate enough to break one’s heart.
“Sigh.”
Kang Hyung-seok exhaled deeply and turned toward the direction where the cattle had collapsed first.
The Youth Leader and Kim Jae-sik hurried after him, and Kang Hyung-seok turned his back to the direction of the first fallen cattle.
Before me lay the sea.
More precisely, the boundary between sea and land.
A long, endless coastline.
“It seems to have come from the sea.”
“Then, is it a sea spirit?”
“No.”
I needed to comfort them and set their minds at ease.
However, Kang Hyung-seok couldn’t help but stiffen his face as he looked at the Youth Leader.
“It’s not as docile a presence as all that.”
It was far larger and more malevolent.
Something at the boundary between land and sea was harming the cattle in this Livestock Farm and the people here.
“Ptui.”
Kang Hyung-seok spat onto the floor.
The taste in his saliva was so bitter and fishy that he simply couldn’t swallow it.
***
Patter, patter-patter-patter!
Thick sheets of rain began pouring down.
Click.
Kim Jae-sik closed the window of the Village Community Center and looked up at the sky with a furrowed brow.
“This doesn’t seem like a typhoon….”
“I heard the news earlier—it is having an impact.”
“Sigh, I just hope there’s no damage.”
Kim Jae-sik sat down on the floor, and Kang Hyung-seok operated the remote to turn on the air conditioner.
The yellow linoleum on the floor was already sticking unpleasantly to the soles of his feet because of the humidity.
With the rain falling on top of that, it felt as though I had stepped into the gaping maw of some enormous beast.
“But what about dinner?”
“Are you hungry?”
We had eaten not long ago.
“No! What are you talking about. It’s just—with the rain coming down like this, I was wondering.”
“I’m sure they’ll take care of it for us.”
The Youth Leader and all the villagers I’d encountered had shifted to a more favorable disposition toward Kang Hyung-seok.
Surely such villagers wouldn’t neglect to prepare dinner for me.
“I did hear something in passing about assigning someone to us?”
“They said that?”
“It must be difficult every time. How could they carry meals over for every single meal.”
That made sense too, so Kang Hyung-seok silently raised the corners of his mouth and nodded.
“Sigh, let me think. There’s really a hell of a lot to consider.”
“Uh, Professor?”
“Hmm?”
Kang Hyung-seok sat down near Kim Jae-sik, who was sitting cross-legged in front of the window, and spoke.
“Earlier, that Hong Kyung-soo Shaman—you know the one?”
“Ah yes, that fellow.”
“I wonder what his last words were.”
Hong Kyung-soo had said this:
That I was the magpie of Chiaksan Mountain, and the pheasant, and the Swallow.
“Oh, that.”
Kang Hyung-seok had been curious about it, but it seemed Kim Jae-sik was not.
He scratched near his neck as if it were nothing, then answered casually.
“It’s a famous story. A tale about a scholar.”
“A scholar?”
“Yes. It’s a famous story, but since it’s like a fairy tale, you probably didn’t know it.”
Even if I had read it, it would have been when I was young.
As Kang Hyung-seok’s eyebrows furrowed at the forgotten memory, Kim Jae-sik continued while removing his socks.
“It’s a story you can find in Korean folklore and the Korean Oral Literature Compendium.”
Kim Jae-sik explained in a gentle voice, like a grandfather telling an old tale.
A scholar was traveling down a road when a large snake tried to swallow the chicks in its nest.
The scholar drew his bow and shot the snake dead.
As darkness fell and he searched for a place to sleep, he followed a light and entered a house, where a beautiful woman greeted him.
The woman treated the scholar with great hospitality, but as the night deepened and the scholar fell asleep, he awoke in distress.
The woman was gone, and a large snake was strangling the scholar.
-You killed my husband, so I will have my revenge. If the bell behind the temple rings three times, I will spare your life, but if not, I will kill you.
There was no way a bell would ring three times in the middle of the night.
Yet the bell rang three times, and the snake became a dragon and ascended to heaven.
When morning came and the scholar went to the bell tower, he found a swallow lying dead with its head split open.
It had repaid the debt of gratitude for saving its chicks by striking the bell with its head to save the scholar.
“…I think I’ve heard it before.”
“Right? It’s such an old tale. It was probably in textbooks too.”
Kim Jae-sik laughed as if exhaling and flopped down on his back.
Since he was lying right in front of the window, his gaze naturally turned toward the sky.
“This is like the middle of the night.”
Looking at the clock, it was 4:30 in the afternoon.
It shouldn’t be this dark at this hour.
Kang Hyung-seok got up from his seat to look out the window.
And he saw the village shrouded in darkness and heavy rain, his face hardening immediately.
“…What’s wrong? Hyung-seok?”
Sensing something was amiss, Kim Jae-sik rose uneasily and stood beside Kang Hyung-seok.
Then he too gazed out the window with an expression similar to Kang Hyung-seok’s.
“This is insane….”
Kim Jae-sik muttered like a groan.
Splatter… splatter….
The village drenched in torrential rain.
From beyond that darkness, the False Shaman he had seen during the day was stumbling forward one agonizing step at a time, looking like a corpse.

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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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