An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 177

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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 176
Part 5. I Was the Swallow (3)
“Hey, where are you going!”
“Why are you doing this all of a sudden!”
“Stop him! Please, stop him!”
The Youth Leader and the other men clung to Kim Jae-sik.
“Let me go! I’m telling you, let me go!”
Kim Jae-sik was trying to leave the Village Community Center.
“Park Su said to stay inside!”
“It’s dangerous out there!”
“What will happen to us if something goes wrong!”
Kim Jae-sik understood.
Yet fear and dread consumed him, leaving him unable to sit still any longer.
“I need to check something!”
Kim Jae-sik shook off the villagers and rushed toward the door of the Community Center.
As he thrust it open, the roar of rain and thunder crashed into the building.
“Ah!”
A few startled people flinched and retreated, while Kim Jae-sik stepped just one foot outside the Community Center.
Sssssss. Shhhhhh.
Snakes were moving throughout the village.
So many of them it seemed impossible.
Yet there was no sense of threat.
They seemed to be searching for their leader, or like lost children seeking their parents.
Boom!
Hearing the thunder that shook the very sky, Kim Jae-sik stepped further outside.
The downpour engulfed him.
“Hah, hah.”
Drenched in an instant, Kim Jae-sik twisted his lips.
There was no one in front of the Community Center.
There was nothing that should be there.
‘So that’s it. This is how it happens.’
Looking at the empty village and the deserted area around the Community Center, Kim Jae-sik smiled bitterly.
Lee Nak-yul was nowhere to be seen.
***
Glub-glub-glub.
Kang Hyung-seok’s exhaled breath transformed into bubbles, rising toward the surface.
The waterproof lantern cast its light through the murky depths.
Kang Hyung-seok pressed forward, guided by the glow.
“Phew!”
As he lifted his head near the cave ceiling where it met the water’s surface, his eyes caught sight of writhing insects clustered densely above.
Damn.
He pressed his palm against a spot free of the creatures and propelled himself deeper into the cave.
The stench of fish, murky odors, cool air.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
Thunder penetrated the cave, shaking its interior violently.
Splash, splash.
Everything seemed to be speaking to me.
Don’t go.
Yet Kang Hyung-seok continued deeper into the cave.
‘The Imoogi had made a promise to the scholar.’
Why did the story about the magpie on Chiaksan Mountain—the one I’d discussed with Kim Jae-sik—suddenly come to mind?
‘If the bell rings three times before midnight, I will save you.’
To save a person, the Swallow had headed toward the Bell Tower.
Kang Hyung-seok thought the increasingly narrow shape of the cave resembled a bell.
‘…I see now.’
I was the Swallow.
The Swallow who had to head toward the Bell Tower to save a person from the Imoogi, and also the magpie and the pheasant.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
As thunder roared again, Kang Hyung-seok smiled bitterly.
Gratitude received?
The meals and shelter had been good.
But that wasn’t a debt great enough to stake my life on.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
Yet I was the only one who could reach the cave’s end.
If I don’t release the Imoogi’s resentment, the calamity won’t stop.
People and livestock will all perish.
Whoosh!
As I held the lantern forward, a vast chamber revealed itself.
And a stench so vile it pierced my nostrils.
I had arrived.
At the place the Imoogi had spoken of.
At the source of what could only be sealed with sacred rope.
Splash!
Emerging from the lake, I trembled in the cold, my arms and legs shaking.
My breath froze white in the air, and the damp clothes siphoned away my body heat with each passing moment.
Kang Hyung-seok stripped off his upper garment and clenched the lantern between his teeth.
Then, gripping the Shaman’s Bell in one hand and the ritual blade in the other, I stepped into the cave.
And I saw it.
‘So this was your resentment….’
Massive bones.
Shattered eggshells.
The answer their forms provided was painfully clear.
They were the bones of snakes far larger than any python, and the eggs bore the elongated shape characteristic of serpents.
The Imoogi had lost its family.
Its offspring. Its mate. Its parents.
Lost them here in this place.
Clink.
I set the lantern on the ground so its light spread as wide as possible, then closed my eyes.
And I began to shake the Shaman’s Bell.
***
“Hurry! Move faster!”
The villagers were bewildered by Kim Jae-sik’s words as he returned to the Village Community Center.
“We need to cover the windows first! Now!”
He was issuing orders without rhyme or reason, leaving everyone confused.
“Why would we cover perfectly good windows?”
The Youth Leader asked him urgently, and Kim Jae-sik answered quickly, his face etched with anxiety.
“Explanations later—we just need to cover the windows now! Don’t look outside!”
Though he offered no explanation, the desperation in his voice was persuasive enough.
The Youth Leader, though bewildered, nodded and gestured frantically to the younger villagers to move quickly.
“Just do as he says! Bring whatever you can find!”
“Would… newspaper work?”
“Anything! Just cover them!”
Kim Jae-sik practically snatched the newspaper from an old man’s hands.
It bore a round soy sauce stain from where it had been laid beneath a seasoning jar in the kitchen, and a musty smell rose from it.
But this was no time to be particular.
Whoosh!
The newspaper slipped weakly from the window as soon as he pressed it against the glass.
Kim Jae-sik panicked, and one of the old men brought a basin of water to dampen the newspaper.
Only then did it adhere to the window.
Splat! Whoosh, whoosh!
As Kim Jae-sik continued covering the windows with newspaper, he shouted loudly to the Youth Leader.
“Toilet paper! Bring toilet paper! We don’t have enough newspaper!”
But why?
The Youth Leader, still bewildered, nonetheless hurried to the bathroom and returned with armfuls of toilet paper rolls.
Kim Jae-sik’s lips were pressed firmly shut as he soaked the cloth and used it to block the Window.
‘I must prevent people from seeing outside.’
If his thoughts and predictions were correct….
‘In the legends, the Imoogi had transformed into the shape of a woman.’
That woman was Lee Nak-yul.
Lee Nak-yul is the Imoogi.
If Kang Hyung-seok succeeds in resolving the Imoogi’s resentment, its ascension will be achieved.
I must prevent people from witnessing it.
That alone was the only way to stop the calamity.
***
Splash, splash.
Standing before the bones and eggshells with water-soaked feet, Kang Hyung-seok raised the Shaman’s Bell to his face as if in prayer.
Waaaarang.
As the Shaman’s Bell rang out, the stench that had filled the surroundings gradually faded away.
Yet this heavy air did not lighten easily.
“With body and heart devoted, I offer my deepest reverence to the celestial realm’s new heavenly law of enlightenment.”
The Dragon King’s prayer was recited for the Imoogi that had failed to become a dragon.
“With body and heart devoted, I offer my deepest reverence to the great wisdom and enlightenment of the Seven Star Lords of Trayastrimsha Heaven.”
May the resentment of one who lost their family be lightened.
“With body and heart devoted, I offer my deepest reverence to all the celestial deities who protect and uphold Brahma and Indra.”
Heavenly deities.
I beseech you so earnestly.
“That I may always keep body and mind pure, abandon affliction, and find my true self.”
I humbly ask that you take pity on the Imoogi, consumed by its resentment.
“I seek to invoke the Dragon King, master of waters in the mortal realm, and obtain true enlightenment.”
Grant it the strength to release its resentment, and preserve the thousand years of its cultivation so it does not become in vain.
Open its eyes.
“Namu ilsim bongcheong, namu ilsim bongcheong, namu ilsim bongcheong.”
Comfort the grieving Imoogi.
Prevent it from committing greater sins.
Flash! Craaaaaack!
Thunder roared loudly, shaking the interior of the Cave.
Water droplets clinging to the ceiling fell, followed by the sound of bats fluttering frantically.
And then came small footsteps and the fishy scent of the Snake, drawing steadily closer.
I didn’t need to look back to know.
Who it was.
“…Why have you come.”
“….”
The presence standing behind me remained silent.
Yet Kang Hyung-seok continued speaking in a calm voice.
“Now I understand your sorrow.”
And I know what I must do.
And I know who you are.
“At first, I thought you were a Shaman.”
But you were not.
You were not even human, let alone a Shaman.
“I failed to recognize you, and I did not understand how profound a sorrow you carried.”
Kang Hyung-seok slowly turned his head back.
And he gazed upon Lee Nak-yul, standing motionless without a single drop of water clinging to her.
“You were an Imoogi.”
In Chungcheongbuk Province and the southern regions, the Imoogi was called a “fallen one.”
The character for “fallen” paired with the name of the creature.
Lee Nak-yul’s very name proclaimed that she was a fallen Imoogi.
As if someone were desperately pleading to be recognized.
“Did you come to harm me? Or did you come to see family you could not meet because of the sacred rope?”
A sorrowful smile spread across Lee Nak-yul’s lips.
“Shaman.”
“Yes.”
“What did you see here?”
Watching Lee Nak-yul speak in a cadence similar to the Imoogi he had seen on the Mountain, Kang Hyung-seok spoke with grave weight.
“I saw your sorrow.”
His eyes perceived much, and felt deeply.
As a Shaman, I could see hundreds of years into the past—Lee Nak-yul cradling broken eggs and the severed bodies of snakes, wailing in anguish.
That emotion was as vivid to me as my own.
“Before the villagers, you wept for the family you had lost.”
Lee Nak-yul’s lips pressed firmly together.
Then she nodded with great difficulty.
Watching her struggle to speak, Kang Hyung-seok continued.
“You were a fallen Imoogi.”
Long ago, one of the villagers saw an Imoogi ascending to the heavens and called it a snake.
Because of that word, the Imoogi could not become a dragon and plummeted to earth.
A thousand years of cultivation became nothing.
And yet Lee Nak-yul did not hate humans.
“You sought to console yourself with love rather than hatred. You tried to build a family, only to be trampled by human hands.”
Lee Nak-yul’s shoulders trembled.
“That sorrow made you what you are now.”
Thick tears that could no longer be held back streamed down Lee Nak-yul’s cheeks.
“After a long time, you earned the right to become a dragon once more, yet you took revenge.”
Lee Nak-yul’s jaw quivered, and a grinding sound escaped as if her teeth might shatter.
“…And yet you still wait for someone to stop you.”
Because I was channeling her spirit, I could perceive it.
Beneath Lee Nak-yul’s deep resentment lay her true heart, hidden in the furthest depths.
“From the beginning, you could have harmed all the villagers. But you didn’t—because you yearned for someone to understand you.”
What Lee Nak-yul truly desired was understanding.
Her heart was so vivid, so tangible before me, that I could not condemn her.
“I will weep in your stead.”
Lee Nak-yul gazed at me through thick, streaming tears.
Tears flowed from my eyes as well, just as they did from hers.
“Abandon your attachments and resentment. Become a dragon. I will open the path for you.”
Those words seeped into the wounded heart of the Imoogi.

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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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