An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 175

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

Episode 175
Part 5. I Was the Swallow (1)
Kang Hyung-seok looked up at the Imoogi, his lips draining of color as he spoke.
“Tell me everything. What do you mean by ‘different’? What is the reason you cannot help but harbor this resentment?”
-.
My insides twist.
My mouth dries, and my mind grows distant.
‘What on earth is it?’
What could have made this Imoogi harbor such profound resentment?
“…Please, tell me.”
-Why.
“I will set you free. I will listen to your resentment, and I will bear it myself.”
Please, I beg you—stop taking lives.
It was only after Kang Hyung-seok’s voice reached the Imoogi with such desperate earnestness that something shifted.
-Why.
“Because that is all I can do….”
Kang Hyung-seok clenched his teeth as he gazed at the Imoogi, gripping the Shaman’s Bell with fierce determination.
“If that will soothe your resentment, I will do it gladly.”
The Imoogi held his gaze for a long moment.
Then it happened.
Whoooosh!
As the Imoogi’s head began to move, water droplets cascaded from the rain-soaked leaves above.
Raindrops fell like a brief downpour, and the Imoogi’s massive head descended gradually until it stopped directly before Kang Hyung-seok.
With its jaw touching the ground, the Imoogi extended its crimson tongue toward Kang Hyung-seok, then withdrew it, repeating the gesture.
-You do not know.
A proper sentence emerged from the Imoogi for the first time.
Gulp.
Kang Hyung-seok swallowed hard and opened his mouth with measured caution.
“Then tell me.”
Dialogue resolves so much.
It calms conflict, resolves misunderstanding, and reveals the path to resolution.
“What is it you wish me to do?”
-Cave.
“…A cave?”
-A cave bound by sacred rope. A place I cannot enter.
Something flickered through my mind.
The cave I saw at the coastline.
A naturally formed cave with ancient sacred rope strung across its entrance.
“What happened in that cave?”
-.
Was he evading the question?
Or was this the only way he could answer?
“What on earth is in that place?”
-ga. And look. I wept sorrowfully there.
“…What did you say?”
The Imoogi did not answer, only staring at Kang Hyung-seok.
Then its long tongue flicked with a sharp hiss, and soon it raised its head high.
As if it were about to vanish back into the mist.
“Wait, please! What exactly is in that cave?”
Kang Hyung-seok cried out urgently.
But the Imoogi’s gaze was no longer fixed upon him.
It turned toward the mountain’s peak, and its long, massive body began to move in that direction as well.
Sssssssss!
The sound of serpent scales scraping against rain-soaked earth filled the air as the Imoogi receded into the distance.
And as the mist grew increasingly thick, the Imoogi’s voice continued.
-Tonight is the night.
Sssss.
Kang Hyung-seok watched the colossal body of the Imoogi move like a mountain just one meter ahead of him.
The body grew progressively thinner until it became a tail, and soon it dissolved into the mist like water seeping into earth.
Thud, pat-pat-pat, whoooosh.
The weakened rain intensified once more to its original ferocity.
And at that moment, the Youth Leader, whom I had clearly told to rest below, came running up, gasping for breath.
“P-Park Su! Park Su!”
Panicked, yet eyes that knew nothing.
The Youth Leader looked around Kang Hyung-seok, breathing heavily, his breath catching in his throat.
“W-What is it? Are you alright?”
“Didn’t you see it?”
“See what?”
He didn’t see it.
The Imoogi.
Then it meant the Youth Leader had not been granted permission by the Imoogi.
“No. Nothing at all.”
“…You’re sure you’re alright?”
“Yes.”
Kang Hyung-seok turned to look in the direction the Imoogi had disappeared and opened his mouth.
“Let’s head back.”
“Yes? Ah, but… won’t you see the Lake?”
He answered by nodding his head.
The Youth Leader still wore an expression of bewilderment, but now there was no longer any need to climb all the way to the Lake.
“I’ve already met it.”
Even if we were to meet again, I doubted I would receive any answers beyond what I had already heard.
***
Upon returning to the Village, Kang Hyung-seok headed straight for the Village Community Center.
The time was 3 PM.
After telling Kim Jae-sik everything that had happened on the Mountain, I showered with hot water in the Bathroom first.
The water cascaded down.
The water flowing across my body and down the drain was brown in color.
And it reeked of Snake.
The water poured down.
The water from the showerhead was warm.
It should have been comforting to my heart.
Yet strangely, my insides felt as cold as if I had swallowed a block of ice.
‘The Cave.’
What on earth could be in that place?
What profound resentment did the Imoogi harbor?
Knock, knock, knock.
As someone knocked on the Bathroom door, I turned down the showerhead to reduce the sound of water.
“Yes?”
“Hyung-seok, the Village Chief is here.”
It seemed the Youth Leader had informed them.
I turned off the faucet completely and grabbed a towel.
“Professor, would you please tell the Village Chief to gather the villagers here?”
“Huh? Here?”
“Yes. I have something to tell them.”
“Alright, okay. I understand. Finish up and come out.”
Kim Jae-sik replied in a tone that suggested he had no idea what this was about, and I rubbed my wet hair with the towel.
After drying off completely, I changed into dry clothes.
These were clothes I had brought from home since the beginning of the trip.
‘It seemed like this wouldn’t be resolved in just a day or two.’
I dried the remaining water from my hair with the towel and stepped out of the Bathroom.
The Village Chief was nowhere to be seen—apparently he had gone out to do the Horror Broadcast—and instead the Youth Leader and Lee Nak-yul were sitting around Kim Jae-sik.
He stood up abruptly.
Upon seeing me, the Youth Leader rose and respectfully clasped his hands together below his navel.
“Why are you doing that?”
“Because you saved my life.”
“That’s only natural. Please don’t make me uncomfortable like this.”
“Yes, yes.”
The Youth Leader sat down awkwardly, and I took a seat near Kim Jae-sik.
“Actually, I do have something I’d like to ask the two of you.”
“Please, ask away.”
Before Lee Nak-yul could open her mouth, the Youth Leader answered, and Kang Hyung-seok turned his gaze toward him.
“There’s a cave near the coastline. It had a sacred rope barrier around it—do you happen to know if something occurred there?”
“A… cave?”
“Yes. I saw it last night before going to the livestock farm.”
“Ah, I’m afraid I don’t know about that.”
The Youth Leader was someone who had lived in this village for a long time.
Yet even he claimed ignorance.
“I don’t know the details myself, you see. Since I was young, the village elders told me never to go near it.”
“…Is that so?”
“Yes. I suspect very few people even know about it. The Village Chief might know, so perhaps we should wait and ask him?”
That seemed like a good idea.
Just as Kang Hyung-seok was about to nod, Lee Nak-yul spoke up in a quiet voice.
“I know.”
“Pardon?”
In an instant, the gazes of Kang Hyung-seok, Kim Jae-sik, and the Youth Leader all fixed on Lee Nak-yul.
None of them had expected a young woman like Lee Nak-yul to know about a cave that even the middle-aged Youth Leader didn’t.
“My grandmother told me about it.”
“Ah.”
Kang Hyung-seok nodded, having grasped the gist of the matter.
“Oh, would you like some coffee? I brought a few instant coffee packets from home.”
“No, thank you. The cave seems more pressing than coffee.”
Deliberately ignoring Kim Jae-sik’s somewhat disappointed expression, Kang Hyung-seok spoke urgently.
“What happened there?”
“They called it a cave that kills people.”
“…Pardon?”
Despite uttering such a dreadful statement, Lee Nak-yul continued with a composed expression.
“Long ago, something terrible happened there, and so it’s filled with malevolent energy. People shouldn’t enter it, she said.”
A dangerous place.
A wicked and treacherous place.
Lee Nak-yul, who had revealed the cave’s nature, pressed her lips tightly together before offering a bitter smile.
“It’s an old story. Since even the Youth Leader doesn’t know about it, there probably aren’t many people left who do.”
I wondered if such a place could really be adequately sealed with merely a sacred rope.
Kang Hyung-seok looked at the Youth Leader, but he only shook his head.
It seemed no one deliberately ventured inside, given its unsettling appearance and the swarms of insects crawling about.
“Thank you.”
“Are you planning to enter the cave?”
“Yes.”
As the weighty answer fell, an equally heavy atmosphere settled over the group.
“Please don’t.”
Then Lee Nak-yul’s quiet voice captured Kang Hyung-seok’s attention.
“There’s no need to go that far. We’ve already strung the sacred rope around the Village and scattered the blessed powder. Shouldn’t we just wait for this to end naturally?”
“The Imoogi’s resentment runs deep.”
At that moment, Lee Nak-yul’s eyes flickered with unease.
As if the mere mention of an Imoogi—something that belonged only to myths and legends—made it difficult for her to fully grasp the reality.
“It seems we’ll need to settle this before the night is through.”
“Before the night….”
“Yes.”
Kang Hyung-seok looked at Kim Jae-sik, the Youth Leader, and Lee Nak-yul in turn, then forced the corners of his mouth upward.
I would have to enter that Cave without knowing what horrors awaited within, to appease the resentment of a creature that was no longer human—the Imoogi.
A Cave where death might be waiting inside.
The task was terrifying and heavy, and everyone’s expressions had grown deeply grave.
“My Guardian Spirit will protect me. So it should be fine.”
“….”
“Professor.”
“Hmm?”
“The Imoogi said tonight. Once the sun sets, I’ll be entering the Cave, so I’d appreciate it if you could keep an eye on Lee Nak-yul and the Youth Leader.”
Kim Jae-sik exhaled a long breath through his nose and nodded.
Now he understood why I had asked the Village Chief to gather the villagers.
“And Lee Nak-yul.”
“Yes?”
“Would it be alright if I asked you for one difficult favor?”
Lee Nak-yul’s brows furrowed in question.
“Please protect the villagers.”
“What….”
“You’re capable of it, aren’t you?”
From what I could tell, Lee Nak-yul was no ordinary person.
There was something—definitely something about her.
Something incomparable to the False Shaman.
If Lee Nak-yul guarded the front of the Village Community Center, the people might survive.
“We need to gather everyone in one place and protect them. We’ll use the sacred rope and blessed powder, but if they can’t contain the Imoogi, a catastrophe will unfold.”
Like the cattle in the Livestock Farm.
The villagers might collapse one after another, screaming in a space reeking of serpent stench.
“Can you do it?”
Lee Nak-yul stared at me silently for a long moment before answering heavily.
“Yes.”
“…Thank you.”
The plan was set, and preparations were nearly complete.
Shhhhhhhh.
Listening to the fierce rain pouring through the closed Window, I turned my gaze outward.
“『Ahem, we’re broadcasting. We’re broadcasting. All residents currently in the Village, please gather at the Village Community Center.』”
The Village Chief’s broadcast to gather the people was beginning.

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