An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 191

—————

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

—————

Chapter 191
Part 3. This Is What Lee Geum-kyung Had Been Saying (3)
Vrrrroooom.
The bus departed from the Retreat Venue.
It carried the children, a Deacon for supervision, and some of the Youth Group Members.
Since it was late at night, they would return to the Church first, and the children would be returned to their parents after sunrise.
“…Deaconess.”
As the bus vanished from sight, the Pastor called out to the Deaconess standing beside him, his voice trembling like a groan.
“Please pray for us, Pastor.”
The Deaconess spoke, and the Pastor nodded with difficulty before summoning the remaining Youth Group Members.
“Our Father in Heaven. Your lamb is suffering….”
As they began their prayer, Shin Yoseph and I bound Oh Ju-young’s arms and legs to the bedframe.
Click!
The cable ties wrapping around her wrists and ankles were something Shin Yoseph had brought.
Clunk.
After hanging a crucifix on the wall and preparing holy water and a Bible, he turned his gaze toward me.
“What do you see?”
It was not a question about Oh Ju-young.
He was asking if there was another entity visible through my spiritual sight.
Whoooosh!
I shook the Shaman’s Bell and began reciting an incantation while looking at Oh Ju-young.
“By the scripture of expulsion, I invoke the Six Heavenly Generals, the Six Jiashen Generals, the Qimen Generals, the Eight Gates Generals, the Five Directions Five Spirits Generals, the Six Paths War Method, the Desert Generals, and the Original Names.”
That was when it happened.
“HAAAACK!”
Oh Ju-young opened her mouth wide and roared at me like a wild beast.
Gleaming eyeballs.
Fangs bared in a gaping mouth.
And tears streaming down her cheeks.
Whoosh.
I paused briefly, then shook the Shaman’s Bell again and continued the incantation.
“When the formations are set in four directions from the Great General’s shrine, the east shall be guarded by the Eight Gates Golden Formation.”
Shin Yoseph could not remain idle either. He made the sign of the cross and began reciting a prayer.
“Lord Jesus Christ, as You prayed to the Father on the night before Your death, and as You and the Father are one, so You desired that all who believe in You would be one.”
“The south shall be the Straight Sword Formation, the west the Six Fire Formation, the north the Eight Trigrams, the Eight Gates Golden Sword Formation, and the Straight Sword Formation. Beyond these, the Gate of Life and Death shall be established.”
Prayer and incantation.
Things that should not coexist, yet the two of us shared the same heart.
We had to save this person.
“Help us to abandon hatred and distrust, to love one another in truth, and to become one community. Amen.”
Shin Yoseph’s prayer had ended, but my incantation continued a little longer.
And when I had finished all the expulsion incantations, I exhaled a breath and shook my head.
“That’s far too potent.”
“How many?”
Shin Yoseph withdrew a notebook from his pocket, and Kang Hyung-seok answered.
“One.”
After jotting down a note, Shin Yoseph muttered something under his breath.
His expression suggested it wasn’t anything encouraging.
“Can you handle it?”
“The emotions are quite intense, but it won’t be easy.”
How could this even be possible?
The Victim Spirit’s mouth, eyes, and ears were all sealed shut.
By the Demon.
“…Is this kind of case common?”
“Possession cases aren’t rare.”
“What?”
Though I’d asked out of shock, Shin Yoseph calmly wiped away Oh Ju-young’s tears.
“Grraaaaaaah!”
In that instant, Oh Ju-young tried to bite his finger, but Shin Yoseph, as if accustomed to it, pressed his forehead firmly.
Then he withdrew his hand from Oh Ju-young and wiped the tears from his finger.
“In Italy alone, it’s half a million people every year.”
“What….”
At the staggering figure, Kang Hyung-seok’s face hardened.
“Much of that stems from baseless fear, but possession cases occur steadily. Ninety percent involve women and minors. It’s common and tragic.”
Perhaps because concrete numbers had been presented.
Suddenly, I realized this phenomenon was occurring somewhere on Earth even now.
Were they receiving help from someone?
Did they have people around them willing to extend a hand?
“Demons are skilled actors. Don’t be deceived.”
“I understand.”
Whirrrrrring!
I shook the Shaman’s Bell.
At that moment, the door thundered with knocks.
“Sigh.”
I gestured to Shin Yoseph to watch Oh Ju-young, then twisted the doorknob open.
Standing before me were the Deaconess and a well-built male student in athletic wear.
“Um….”
Before the Deaconess could continue, I stepped into the corridor and shut the door behind me.
Despite my urgency, the young man’s gaze remained fixed on Oh Ju-young.
“What is the matter?”
I asked quietly, and the Deaconess trembled with her hands clenched near her chest as if in prayer.
“Is… is… is she… alright?”
You’re asking just about that?
My brow furrowed for a moment, but I shook my head briefly.
I’d meant to clear my thoughts, but the Youth Leader and Deaconess misunderstood, and their expressions darkened noticeably.
“No, it’s just that I felt dizzy.”
“Ah, I see.”
“But let’s talk for a moment.”
The Deaconess nodded vigorously and walked toward the Back Gate with the Youth Leader instead of the Main Gate.
I felt thirsty and there was a vending machine nearby, but for some reason a large moth lay dead inside the glass, so I didn’t reach for it.
“What about the Pastor?”
“He’s still praying over by the Main Gate.”
I pressed my lips together firmly and nodded, then shifted my gaze to the Youth Leader.
“Do you know that student?”
“W-we’re friends from the same church.”
The purity of his answer made it obvious he was indeed a young man barely into adulthood.
“I can provide an explanation if you wish. But I don’t want religious debate.”
The Youth Leader answered first by nodding, and the Deaconess followed with a “Yes.”
“A spirit and a Demon. Both are attached to her.”
“Ah, oh my, goodness.”
The Deaconess’s face went pale.
The Youth Leader’s expression hardened—a reaction suggesting he couldn’t quite believe whether this was real or not.
‘What is this? The reaction is….’
Normally, hearing such words would produce that wide-eyed look the Youth Leader had.
But the Deaconess seemed to accept it straightforwardly, so my attention and gaze turned toward her.
“…From what I understand, something similar happened about fifteen years ago.”
“…!”
Meeting the eyes of the Deaconess, whose eyes had widened, I swallowed a sigh internally.
Just as I thought—this Deaconess knows something.
“What happened back then?”
“That is, that was…”
“You must tell me.”
The Victim Spirit can’t speak, and neither can Oh Ju-young.
In situations like this, information can only be obtained through someone who knows what happened.
Only then can I resolve the Victim Spirit’s grudge and deal with the Demon.
Shin Yoseph can save Oh Ju-young.
“It w-was my cousin.”
“…Pardon?”
“Fifteen years ago, that Ju-young. Ju-young’s cousin experienced the exact same thing.”
My gaze shifted in that direction.
The Retreat Venue, which had no apparent connection to anything, suddenly felt like it reached across fifteen years of time to touch me.
“Maybe, maybe her name was….”
The Deaconess was reaching back into her old memories when it happened.
“Oh Kyung-joo.”
The name that suddenly brushed across my mind—I spoke it aloud.
“Y-yes! That’s right!”
With the Deaconess watching, her eyes wide with shock, I turned my gaze toward where Shin Yoseph and Oh Ju-young stood and continued.
“What happened to Oh Kyung-joo?”
“That is, that is….”
“Tell me.”
Though my eyes weren’t fixed on her, I infused my voice with enough force to convey my intent.
“Hhh!”
The Deaconess gasped for breath, her eyes clenching shut, and then she wrung out a subdued voice.
“She’s dead.”
“…I see.”
So she was a cousin.
A Victim Spirit ensnared by a Demon.
“Did she not receive help?”
“Oh, no! There was someone who helped back then too. But they said it was too late, that’s all they told me.”
When I turned my gaze to her, the Deaconess was trembling as if it were the depths of winter.
Her emotions were in such turmoil it was painful to witness, so I swallowed my words for a moment before speaking.
“You said you contacted a Nun you know?”
“…Yes.”
That Nun was someone Shin Yoseph knew.
“So that’s why the Priest came.”
“Yes.”
It felt like pieces were clicking into place one by one.
The Church, the Deaconess and the Nun, Shin Yoseph and the Demon.
Oh Ju-young and Oh Kyung-joo.
Everything had seemed like coincidence, but now I wondered if it might be something else entirely.
‘It’s inevitable.’
Before my eyes, the Deaconess recalled a terrifying memory from fifteen years ago, her voice quavering as she forced out the words with difficulty.
“There was a Priest who helped back then.”
I thought I knew who that Priest was.
But I waited for the Deaconess to speak his name.
“He was called Father Leo.”
Shin Yoseph’s senior.
The priest who died because Shin Yoseph fled during an exorcism.
***
Scratch, scratch.
While Kang Hyung-seok was away, Shin Yoseph observed Oh Ju-young with careful deliberation, jotting down notes.
In an exorcism ritual, documentation is always crucial.
And it becomes a lighthouse that steadies the mind when it threatens to waver.
Scratch, scratch.
【Maldor Symptoms Confirmed】
The stench of rotting flesh mingled in the air was undoubtedly one of the Demon’s distinct symptoms.
【Dilated Pupils】
Pupils enlarged to the point where the whites of the eyes were invisible—though uncommon, it was a symptom that appeared nonetheless.
【Bestial】
Shin Yoseph paused his pen as he was taking notes.
One of the primary reasons for keeping records was to distinguish between a Demon and someone with a mental illness.
Bestial sounds were the symptom most easily mistaken for mental illness, yet Shin Yoseph resumed writing with the pen he had briefly stopped.
【Bestial Vocalizations】
It was the moment Shin Yoseph was about to turn the page of his notebook.
“Grrrrr.”
A predator’s guttural growl poured from Oh Ju-young’s lips.
In that instant, Shin Yoseph turned his head toward her, meeting her gaze.
In pupils that had been unfocused moments before, a sharp consciousness now took root.
Yet that could not possibly be Oh Ju-young.
It could not be human.
No human could possess such a gaze.
Snap.
Shin Yoseph closed his notebook and opened his mouth toward Oh Ju-young.
“Speak your name.”
“Grrrrrrgh.”
“Demon, your existence has been discovered by mankind.”
Shin Yoseph repeated the words once more in Italian before making the sign of the cross.
Then he dipped his thumb in holy water and extended his hand toward Oh Ju-young.
Immediately after, the corners of Oh Ju-young’s lips began to creep slowly upward toward her ears.
“Ignatius.”
Shin Yoseph’s baptismal name.
From Oh Ju-young’s mouth, which spoke it, came a repulsive laugh and a voice thick and masculine as a serpent’s hiss.
“Little spark of the lion. What audacity brings you before me?”
“….”
“Silence to mask your fear. Look well. I am your end.”
Oh Ju-young finished speaking and opened her mouth wide.
Her lips split at the corners, blood beading at the edges.
Shin Yoseph felt his entire body freeze.
Distinct marks were forming on Oh Ju-young’s palate as if branded there by a hot iron.
666.
The number of the Demon.

—————

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

—————