An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 218

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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 217
Part 5. What Is It You Really Want to Say (1)
Crunch, crunch.
Kang Hyung-seok made his way toward the sprawling Vinyl Greenhouse.
The wind carried with it the rich scent of medicinal herbs.
This is a good place.
There’s no Livestock Farm nearby, and the Road is far removed.
Medicinal herbs grown in such a place—I could trust and conduct business with them without hesitation.
Knock, knock.
But there’s something that comes before the contract.
I need to understand why Park Mi-ryung introduced me to the owner of this place.
“I’ve come on Park Mi-ryung’s introduction.”
Kang Hyung-seok spoke politely, and just as he was about to knock again, the door opened.
“I’ve been waiting for you.”
Kang Hyung-seok found himself unconsciously staring into the elderly man’s eyes.
It wasn’t merely because of the thick medicinal herb scent emanating from his body.
‘His eyes…’
One eye was a prosthetic.
It was so obviously artificial that it clearly hadn’t been fitted recently.
“Please, come in. Thank you for coming all this way.”
The man opened the door wide, and Kang Hyung-seok followed him into the Container Housing.
A cabinet for storing ledgers.
A wall clock with an organization’s name inscribed on it.
Decorative stones adorning the walls.
The overall impression was ordinary, yet the scent reminiscent of an apothecary was far from common.
Clink, clink.
Kang Hyung-seok observed the man’s back as he prepared tea.
“May I ask why you sought me out first?”
The man’s hands, which had been dissolving yuzu marmalade into hot water, stilled.
Then he looked at Kang Hyung-seok with his prosthetic eye, and Kang Hyung-seok touched his nose while surveying the interior.
The medicinal herb scent here was overwhelming.
And faintly, another scent was mingled within it.
Thunk.
The man set the yuzu tea on the table and sat across from Kang Hyung-seok.
“My name is Jo Un-su.”
He then produced a business card and handed it over, and Kang Hyung-seok exchanged his own card as well.
Daejeong Materials Sales Team 1, Kang Hyung-seok, Manager.
A smile bloomed at the corners of Jo Un-su’s mouth as he confirmed the affiliation and title.
“When I heard from the Shaman Park Mi-ryung, I was uncertain, but you’re truly living as a member of society.”
“There’s a story behind it.”
“I’ve heard about that as well. The Guardian Spirit said you’re someone entrusted with important matters.”
Park Mi-ryung had revealed far more than I expected.
If that was the case, then this person was someone I could trust.
Slurp.
After taking a sip of yuzu tea, I wiped my sticky lips with my thumb before speaking.
“You’re not an ordinary person, are you?”
In that instant, Jo Un-su’s face stiffened.
His eyes betrayed the question of how I could have known.
“It seems you have connections to the Buddhist clergy.”
Had he been a Shaman, he wouldn’t have sought out Park Mi-ryung in the first place, and even if he had, the moment he saw my Guardian Spirit, he would have shown obvious surprise or confusion.
“Hah, hehehehe.”
Jo Un-su let out an admiring laugh and reached for the yuzu tea.
“Yes, that’s right. It’s ancient history now.”
I nodded silently, keeping my lips pressed together.
Though it was his past, Jo Un-su had once been a Monk.
I had a premonition that a person like that seeking out a Shaman wouldn’t be a simple matter.
“May I ask what this is about?”
“Is there anything you’re sensing right now?”
Jo Un-su’s voice was low as he answered my question with another question.
Yet there was no intention to test me.
It was more like he was simply asking what I thought.
“There’s a smell.”
“A smell…?”
“Yes. The scent of medicinal herbs is strong, but there’s another smell mixed in.”
It wasn’t a ghost.
If I had to describe it, it was closer to the smell emanating from something profane.
A smell that came from a place one shouldn’t approach.
The kind of smell that made one instinctively avoid the location.
In this place filled with the fragrance of medicinal herbs beneficial to people, there was a smell that shouldn’t be here.
“At first, I thought it might be related to some object…”
I slowly surveyed the interior of the Container Housing.
Then I shook my head and continued.
“But it wasn’t.”
Though Jo Un-su didn’t speak, his expression clearly showed his surprise.
“Hmm.”
“It seems to be profanity related to the land itself. And it’s quite severe.”
Everything within my sight was worn.
Some medicinal herbs required years of cultivation, so this place hadn’t existed for only a year or two.
That’s why I was puzzled.
“Why are you cultivating medicinal herbs in a place like this?”
It feels like a collision between yin and yang.
Jo Un-su, whose expression had been rigid, smiled as if pulling up the corners of his mouth.
“Impressive. More so than I expected.”
Jo Un-su seemed genuinely surprised—even his hand holding the teacup trembled slightly.
An awkward silence hung in the air for a moment.
During that time, Kang Hyung-seok waited for Jo Un-su’s explanation, but no further words came.
“Seeing is believing, as they say.”
Jo Un-su, speaking with the unhurried cadence of a Monk, shifted his gaze toward the wall clock.
The time was 3:40 PM.
An awkward hour.
“Could you come with me for a moment?”
Perhaps because of this, Jo Un-su’s voice was heavy with apology.
“Let’s go.”
So when Kang Hyung-seok readily spoke and rose from his chair, gratitude and apology clung thickly to Jo Un-su’s face.
***
Vroom.
They traveled in Kang Hyung-seok’s car.
It was quite far from the Village, in the outskirts.
Few cars passed through here, and though the navigation marked it as a road, it wasn’t really a proper highway.
It was a concrete path without lane markings.
Thump, thump.
Perhaps because every time repairs were needed, they simply patched the holes with concrete.
Even though they weren’t driving fast, the car bounced as if riding on a tractor.
“It’s quite far out.”
“Yes. Well, it is.”
Kang Hyung-seok glanced briefly at Jo Un-su’s profile, then shifted his gaze forward.
“What kind of circumstances are tied to this place?”
“You’ll understand faster by seeing it directly.”
Jo Un-su, his face full of concern, pointed right at a fork in the road.
Kang Hyung-seok turned the wheel in that direction, and after driving another two minutes, the car came to a stop.
Yet this didn’t seem to be their destination.
The malevolent energy had grown stronger, but there was nothing visible.
Click.
Jo Un-su unfastened his seatbelt and opened the car door as he spoke.
“We just need to walk a little further.”
Kang Hyung-seok checked his wristwatch just before getting out of the car.
Even if he turned back now, leaving work on time would be impossible.
Beep!
Locking the car, Kang Hyung-seok began following Jo Un-su up the Mountain Road.
It was a remote Mountain Road in a sparsely populated Rural Area.
Overgrown grass and a path that hardly seemed like a path at all.
‘So he’s a former Monk, they said….’
Kang Hyung-seok watched Jo Un-su walking silently ahead, then shifted his gaze to their surroundings.
Not being a geomancer or land surveyor, I couldn’t discern the details.
Yet I could sense the spiritual energy emanating from the terrain itself.
In the distance lay Jo Un-su’s Vinyl Greenhouse, and beyond it stretched the Mountain.
‘A receptive formation? Or a protective one?’
I didn’t know what lay in the direction Jo Un-su was heading.
But if something truly malevolent existed there, Jo Un-su’s Vinyl Greenhouse and the Mountain would form a barrier against that energy.
Perhaps the medicinal herbs weren’t meant to neutralize that energy after all.
“We’re almost there.”
Jo Un-su spoke breathlessly, and after walking another minute or so, he came to a stop.
“What do you see?”
Kang Hyung-seok, asked the question, gnawed at his lower lip without answering.
Still, Jo Un-su didn’t press for a response.
“You can feel it too, it seems.”
Jo Un-su, speaking matter-of-factly, crouched down.
Even as he did, Kang Hyung-seok continued to stare fixedly at that which captured his gaze.
A reek so acrid it was suffocating.
An old Well.
And a blue tarp spread across its surroundings.
“What on earth is this place….”
“They say a man with a disturbed mind used to live around here. In this area.”
Jo Un-su continued, his eyes fixed on the Well.
“It’s unsettling, isn’t it? When there’s someone like that in the Village.”
Suddenly, a form began to materialize before Kang Hyung-seok’s eyes.
A man.
Judging by his clothing—the 1950s or 60s?
A very long time ago.
“From a certain point on, they say disturbing incidents began happening in the Village. Dogs and cats kept disappearing.”
Back then, that Well had a cover on it.
It was already abandoned even then, and it was in a place just as remote as it is now.
Creak.
Beneath the feet of the man who opened the Well’s cover lay a dog and a cat with their skulls crushed.
Splash!
The dog and cat were hurled into the depths of the Well by the man.
“And then something terrible happened in the Village, they say.”
For some reason, Jo Un-su’s voice sounded like a grandfather telling an old tale.
Yet the content was absolutely nothing like a gentle old story.
It was gruesome and cruel.
“A baby has gone missing from the Village, I hear.”
Waaah! Waaah! Waaah!
A man stood before the Well, holding a shrieking infant above his head.
Kang Hyung-seok answered him with a sound like a groan.
“Yes….”
Splash!
“Once things escalated like this, the villagers wouldn’t sit idle. They tore through the Village searching for the culprit, and in the end, all his past misdeeds came to light.”
Jo Un-su turned his head to look at Kang Hyung-seok.
Then, without a word, he shifted his gaze back to the Well.
“It seems you know what happened.”
Creak!
Kang Hyung-seok watched the man pry open the Well’s lid, his lips curling with disgust.
“He threw himself in.”
“That’s right.”
Jo Un-su pushed himself up onto his knees.
At the same moment, the vision the Guardian Spirit had shown him vanished.
“Phew.”
Kang Hyung-seok shook his head as if to clear it, then turned his gaze toward Jo Un-su.
“It seems that’s not the reason you summoned me.”
“That’s right.”
Jo Un-su pulled a cigarette from his pocket.
He lit it while looking at the Well, then continued as if sighing.
“If that were all, I would have kept blocking it….”
A murmur, like speaking to himself.
Still, because the surroundings were quiet, Kang Hyung-seok could hear him.
“Someone has done something strange. No matter how I look at it, it seems beyond my capabilities.”
What could it be?
It was the moment Kang Hyung-seok was about to ask.
“I’m sorry to burden you with such a complicated matter.”
Jo Un-su spoke with a bitter smile, pointing toward his distant Vinyl Greenhouse.
“Once you finish the work well, we’ll draw up a contract. It’s awkward to say, but I’m confident in the quality.”
Jo Un-su voiced the difficult truth that Kang Hyung-seok struggled to articulate, his tone apologetic.
The medicinal herbs that grew in the place where malevolent energy was held back.
‘Even if he’s confident in the quality, it won’t be satisfactory.’
For now, it might be disappointing.
However, if the problem is resolved and the toxic energy disappears, the quality could improve beyond its current state.
That kind of thing makes money.
In an aging South Korea, the demand base can only grow.
“Then let’s proceed with the contract that way….”
Jo Un-su pointed toward the tarp.
Without a word, he conveyed his message through atmosphere and the intensity of his gaze alone.
Pull that back.
See for yourself what’s actually buried there.
Tsk.
Kang Hyung-seok rubbed his canine tooth with his tongue, then withdrew his gaze from Jo Un-su and moved forward.
Jo Un-su’s story was certainly ancient history.
I could sense a potent energy emanating from that well and the earth, but that man’s spirit wasn’t bound to the well.
‘Then what in the world happened here?’
Kang Hyung-seok approached the waterproof tarp cautiously and grasped its edge.
Whoosh!
Then, as if drawing back a curtain, he peeled away the tarp.

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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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