An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 211

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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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Episode 211
Part 2. What Emerged from the Earth (4)
Clink!
“Ah, this guy’s quite the character!”
An evening meal shared with two Sales Department employees.
Even a man as rigid as stone seemed to loosen up, and with alcohol flowing freely, Ha Jang-seo appeared to be in exceptionally high spirits.
“He’s someone I hear that about often. He’s also a colleague I rely on quite a bit.”
“At first, I thought he was one of those wooden, expressionless types.”
Ha Jang-seo picked up tongs and a ladle, then pulled a chicken leg from the bubbling pot and placed it in front of Lee Jin-pyung.
“Thank you.”
Lee Jin-pyung bowed his head slightly without unnecessary words, and even that gesture seemed to please Ha Jang-seo.
“I really like people like this. They’re a hundred, a thousand times better than someone who chatters away like a con artist.”
Kang Hyung-seok smiled faintly.
Honestly, Lee Jin-pyung had an unusually taciturn demeanor for a Sales Department employee.
Still, regardless of other things, he genuinely excelled at dealing with people sincerely.
That was Lee Jin-pyung’s greatest weapon, and because of it, even though he wasn’t particularly skilled at securing new contracts, his account management was unmatched in Sales Team 1.
“Let’s do our best going forward.”
Ha Jang-seo extended his hand for a handshake, and Lee Jin-pyung grasped it firmly.
Meanwhile, Kang Hyung-seok tore off a piece of chicken breast with his chopsticks and set it down at Baekseol’s feet.
-Slurp, slurp, slurp.
Baekseol was eagerly licking her tongue at that very moment.
“Sigh, really. I wish our son-in-law was just like Lee Jin-pyung.”
“Ah, you mentioned having a daughter?”
“Yes, I do.”
Ha Jang-seo tapped his pocket rhythmically, and when a smoker makes such a gesture, there’s only one reason.
“Would you care to smoke a cigarette for a moment?”
“Ah, sounds good!”
Ha Jang-seo, seeming delighted by the suggestion, stepped outside the Restaurant with Kang Hyung-seok and Lee Jin-pyung.
It was a Restaurant in a somewhat remote location.
In front lay a Parking Lot, and beyond that stretched a four-lane Road.
The sun had already descended, and the lingering embers of sunset resisted the encroaching darkness, gradually fading away.
Click!
“Phoooo!”
Ha Jang-seo exhaled smoke like a sigh.
In that moment, Lee Jin-pyung exchanged a glance with Kang Hyung-seok—a look that asked, “Did you know Ha Jang-seo had children?”
He hadn’t known. Neither had Kang Hyung-seok.
Ha Jang-seo had never mentioned it before.
“Well, there’s nothing particularly dramatic about it.”
Ha Jang-seo scratched near his temples with his rough, weathered hand as he smoked.
“It’s common enough. A daughter despising her father who works the land.”
It was a remark difficult to respond to.
When Kang Hyung-seok let out a bitter laugh, Ha Jang-seo continued speaking while gazing at the gradually fading sunset.
“We fought a lot, and then she suddenly left, and then she brought back some guy who didn’t even meet my standards and said she wanted to marry him.”
Though his tone seemed blunt on the surface, a deep affection for his daughter was embedded within it.
“You seem to love her very much.”
“Is there a father in this world who doesn’t….”
Ha Jang-seo chuckled and sent a look of gratitude for their understanding.
“Anyway, I saw my granddaughter the year before last. Now she walks around well, and she’s quite adorable.”
“Do you have a photo?”
Lee Jin-pyung asked the question in his characteristically emotionless tone.
Still, the question itself was welcome to someone with a granddaughter, so Ha Jang-seo quickly opened his phone and rummaged through his gallery.
“Look here, look. She sends me photos sometimes, and I’ve saved every single one.”
For someone saying that, the number of photos was surprisingly few.
“I noticed earlier that your wallpaper was the default one. Would you like me to change it to a photo of your granddaughter?”
Ha Jang-seo looked at Lee Jin-pyung with surprised eyes, then rummaged through his gallery again.
“Oh, oh! This one, please use this one!”
“Yes.”
Ha Jang-seo showed a photo of his granddaughter taken at her first birthday celebration.
Click, click-click.
In an instant, Lee Jin-pyung changed the wallpaper to his granddaughter, and a broad smile spread across Ha Jang-seo’s face.
“My goodness, really. Actually, my daughter did change it for me before, but without me touching anything, the wallpaper just changed on its own.”
It changed because she touched it.
It was a thought that crossed both Lee Jin-pyung’s and Kang Hyung-seok’s minds, but it was a remark they couldn’t tactlessly voice aloud.
“Phew, thank you. Thank you.”
“Not at all.”
The two men continued their warm conversation, and when Ha Jang-seo finished his cigarette, Kang Hyung-seok said, “Then shall we head inside.”
The meal didn’t end until another bottle of soju had been emptied.
“Would you like a receipt?”
“Yes.”
Kang Hyung-seok received his card back at the register and carefully folded the receipt into his wallet.
“Let’s go. I’ll drive you home in my car.”
“No, you don’t have to.”
Seeing Ha Jang-seo hesitate, Kang Hyung-seok shook his head with a smile.
“I deliberately didn’t drink.”
“Oh my.”
“Come with me. And Lee Deputy Manager should ride too.”
For a moment, Lee Jin-pyung sent a look asking if he had something to do—the same gaze he’d shown once in front of the restaurant.
Click.
Kang Hyung-seok opened the rear passenger door so Ha Jang-seo could get in. Then he put Lee Jin-pyung in the front seat and dropped him off on the way.
“Get some rest first!”
I spoke to Kang Hyung-seok as he closed the passenger door, then changed the navigation’s destination to Ha Jang-seo’s House.
The engine rumbled softly.
“Mmm…”
Ha Jang-seo was dozing peacefully, the alcohol warming his body pleasantly.
‘It has to mean something.’
I hadn’t brought Ha Jang-seo out of that pit near the Yeolnyeo-gak for nothing.
There was the purpose of keeping him away from the Yeolnyeo-gak, and beyond that, there was the matter of getting him to drink.
Alcohol serves to wash away spiritual contamination.
Since I couldn’t splash alcohol on his body, I chose to fill his body with it from within.
“Sigh…”
Still, it didn’t seem like a complete solution.
The engine rumbled softly.
After driving for some time, I arrived at Ha Jang-seo’s House and turned to tell him we’d arrived.
“Huh? Already here?”
“Yes. Can you make it upstairs on your own?”
“Of course, I’m fine. Perfectly fine.”
Doubting his words, I supported Ha Jang-seo and accompanied him to the Entrance.
“Thank you for today. For everything.”
“I didn’t really do anything.”
“I know you cared. How could I not notice?”
Ha Jang-seo smiled, recalling how I’d examined the Yeolnyeo-gak from below the pit, and I sent him off with a smile of my own.
Click! The lock engaged.
As the door locked automatically, I wiped the smile from my face. Then I hurried down the stairs and rummaged through the car trunk.
Rustle, rustle!
‘Salt, salt.’
There it was.
Finding the salt and glutinous rice flour I always carried just in case, I looked up at Ha Jang-seo’s House once before taking the salt.
I scattered it in a sweeping motion.
Anywhere spiritual energy could escape.
Anywhere a person could climb over.
I scattered it in another sweeping motion.
Spreading salt inconspicuously across all these places was to prevent any misfortune that might otherwise befall him.
The salt poured out smoothly.
Holding the now-empty salt bag, I gazed at Ha Jang-seo’s House with a contemplative expression.
Then I got back into the car.
‘There’s so much left to do.’
An innocent person must not be caught up in this.
I don’t want to witness such a situation.
The engine growled to life.
The sound of the car’s engine seemed unusually loud.
Do everything you can right away.
Hurry.
Feeling as though someone was urging me with those words, I steered the car hastily toward the Yeolnyeo-gak.
***
Thud!
After getting out of the car, I grabbed my backpack first.
Then I retrieved the glutinous rice flour from the trunk and rushed toward the Yeolnyeo-gak, but the sun had already completely set.
Squelch! Squelch!
The earth clung to my feet like mudflats.
But I had to go.
I didn’t know what story was entangled with that Yeolnyeo-gak, but the energy surrounding it felt far too ominous.
Screeeech!
Sliding down the ladder, I tore open the corner of the bag containing the glutinous rice flour with my teeth.
Then I sprinkled it in a circle around the Yeolnyeo-gak and covered the flour with soil.
‘Please, please, please.’
Let nothing terrible happen.
Looking at the Yeolnyeo-gak within arm’s reach, I revealed my earnest heart, and I also smeared glutinous rice flour on the ladder.
That was when it happened.
Still.
I stopped my hand and slowly turned my head.
‘Why is there no response…?’
I was performing a ritual.
It was night, and the atmosphere, bereft of the sun, blew in as a cool breeze.
Yet there was no reaction from the Yeolnyeo-gak.
‘Could it be….’
I moved slowly and approached the Yeolnyeo-gak.
-Woof woof woof woof!
I seemed to hear the sound of Baekseol barking fiercely when the Yeolnyeo-gak was revealed to the world.
-Crack!
I also seemed to hear the sound made when the excavator found the Yeolnyeo-gak.
Slowly.
I poked my head into the interior of the Yeolnyeo-gak and looked up at the ceiling.
A tiny hole in the ceiling that the excavator had broken.
Right above where the inscription should have been, near the main beam, a small hole had formed.
Seeing the faint moonlight seeping in through the hole, I felt my blood freeze in my veins.
“…It was already out from the beginning.”
The Yeolnyeo-gak, which had been buried for centuries, was revealed to the world when the excavator scraped the roof.
It came out.
Through the hole that formed then.
Something that should never have come out.
Wail—ring.
The Shaman’s Bell in my backpack chimed, just as it had when I first saw the Yeolnyeo-gak.
And I slowly turned my head toward the ladder.
There, clinging to the ladder with her body still concealed in shadow, the pitch-black Vengeful Spirit hung and smiled.
Amused that I had finally noticed her, she split her grotesque lips wide in a grin.
“…Yeolnyeo.”
In that instant, the Vengeful Spirit’s smile vanished.
Her eyes turned savage, her mouth twisted into a snarl.
Scritch.
The Vengeful Spirit’s dirt-caked fingernails scraped against the ladder.
And an emotion so raw it transcended language flooded the entire excavation site in a heartbeat.
Hatred.
Drip, drop.
Dark crimson blood beaded and fell from my nose, the blood vessels ruptured by the force of her malice.
Without even the luxury to wipe it away, I held her gaze and continued.
“Tell me your reason.”
Your resentment.
What you endured.
And what it is you hate so deeply.
Whoosh.
Still locked in her stare, I carefully reached my hand behind me.
Just as I gripped my backpack to retrieve the Shaman’s Bell—
Scritch-scritch-scritch!
The Vengeful Spirit gnashed her teeth at me, grinding them furiously.
Then a thick stream of bloody tears fell, and she opened her mouth.
Splatter.
Shattered teeth mixed with blood spilled from the Vengeful Spirit’s mouth.
And her severed tongue as well.
I froze, then quickly shifted my gaze from the earth to the Vengeful Spirit.
The Vengeful Spirit who had been clinging to the ladder moments before had vanished without a trace, as if she had never existed at all.
“Damn it!”
I began climbing the ladder urgently.
Even as I ascended, the Yeolnyeo-gak deep in the excavation site remained fixed in place, as if watching over my departure.

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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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