An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 240

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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 239
Part 4. Do Not Trust Your Ears (3)
Tick-tock.
Kang Hyung-seok hadn’t slept.
Sleep wouldn’t come.
My mind was churning with too many thoughts.
‘Hong Kyung-soo and the Jangsan Tiger.’
Human and monster.
They seemed to have nothing in common.
Yet the warning not to trust them was chillingly identical.
What could I possibly believe in?
What should I trust, and what should I do?
Step, step.
With each footfall, worry and anguish dripped from me like water.
It was then.
As I made a wide loop around the village, Park Su-il’s House came into view.
Kang Hyung-seok’s eyes snapped wide open.
“…Damn it.”
There was nothing visible to the eye.
But the spiritual aura and the beast’s stench were unmistakably clear.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
In a flash, he bolted toward Park Su-il’s House, punching the password with violent urgency before wrenching the entrance door open.
The interior, which he’d expected to be dark, blazed with light.
“Park Su-il!”
As his eyes swept frantically through the house, something seized his attention.
“…No.”
The Kitchen window hung open.
A chill ran through him as though he’d swallowed ice, and he threw open every door in the house.
With each door he opened, it felt as though his life span shortened.
Every room was empty.
Bang!
When he finally wrenched open the Bathroom door, Kang Hyung-seok found himself silently offering gratitude to the heavens.
“Ugh! Ugh-ugh-ugh!”
Park Su-il was huddled there like an infant, his face drained of all color.
“Ugh-ugh-ugh!”
But Kang Hyung-seok’s expression hardened immediately.
Something was wrong with Park Su-il’s state.
It couldn’t be explained by mere shock.
“Ugh! Ugh! Ahhh!”
Slowly and deliberately, Kang Hyung-seok lifted his gaze from Park Su-il, who was desperately trying to hold his attention downward.
And beyond the bathroom window, I saw it.
The Jangsan Tiger.
Five paces away.
Behind a window barely larger than both palms combined, the Jangsan Tiger crouched.
Its face pitch-black, talismans plastered thickly around its eyes.
The creature—resembling both a dog and a human—pressed itself against the glass.
Wheeeee, clatter-clatter-clatter.
As the Jangsan Tiger mimicked the spine-chilling sound of wind and rattling windows, I reached out instinctively.
Toward Park Su-il.
Snap!
“Gah-gah-gah!”
The moment I seized Park Su-il by the collar, I dragged him out of the bathroom and slammed the door shut.
Boom!
Immediately, I drew out the Shaman’s Bell and the spirit-slaying blade.
“Bae-cheong-bon-sa-wi-o-chuk-yeom-mi-jo-sa-wi-o-chuk-yeom-mi-chil-jo-seon-sa-wi-o-chuk-yeom-mi-ok-nyeo-wi-o-chuk-yeom-mi-yeom-hwa-dong-jong-mi-hwal-cheol-ja-hyung-sin-ak-sal.”
Chanting the incantation with desperate speed, as if I’d forgotten to breathe, I kept my eyes locked on the bathroom door.
Waaaaaa-rang!
All the while, I shook the Shaman’s Bell and the blade without pause.
“Uhhhhh-aaahhh!”
Park Su-il lunged forward, trying to disrupt the chant,
Thud!
I hooked his leg and shoved him backward.
“Ugh!”
Crash-bang-bang!
Park Su-il tumbled across the living room floor.
“Gwang-gwi-cheon-ri-geo-cheon-sal-gwi-cheon-ri-geo-ji-sal-ji-dang-hyung-sin-ak-sal-gong-gwi-seo-bang-ap-song-toe-sin-chul-oe-bang-sin-byeong-sin-jang-hwa.”
I shifted my gaze from Park Su-il to the bathroom door as I completed the incantation.
“Geup-geup-yeo-yul-ryeong!”
My voice resonated through the living room.
Then came a heavy silence.
The house grew so quiet that even breathing sounded loud—and the bestial stench was gone.
It had retreated.
I didn’t need to open the bathroom door to know. I turned my attention to Park Su-il.
“Oooo! Ooooooo!”
Curled into a ball, Park Su-il howled like an animal—the same man I’d conversed with normally just hours before.
“Park Su-il.”
I approached him cautiously and placed a hand on his back.
And just as I was about to ask if he was alright, he suddenly jerked his head up.
“Uhhhhh-aaahhh!”
Eyes bloodshot, mouth gaping wide.
Crack!
Blocking Park Su-il’s violent lunge with a firm press of my shoulder, I felt my face growing rigid and tense.
‘I’ve been possessed.’
Park Su-il’s eyes had lost all focus.
Clack! Clack clack! Clack!
Watching Park Su-il gnash his upper and lower teeth together like a rabid beast, I stared toward the bathroom door.
The Jangsan Tiger had definitely retreated.
Yet beyond that firmly sealed door, it still felt as though the Jangsan Tiger lingered.
My mind grew tangled, and my heart grew heavy.
Clack! Crack! Clack clack clack!
Even as this continued, Park Su-il kept snapping endlessly at my neck, as if trying to tear into it.
***
Creak!
When Hong Kyung-soo opened the car door, a man’s gaze followed him.
It was the Dharma Master—Hong Kyung-soo’s companion.
“Is it all finished?”
The Dharma Master, lying in the driver’s seat with only a blanket draped over him, asked in a drowsy voice, and Hong Kyung-soo climbed into the passenger seat.
“Finished, more or less.”
“But why are you alone?”
Hong Kyung-soo lit a cigarette with a displeased expression.
Sometimes silence itself becomes an answer, and a bitter smile spread across the man’s lips.
“Didn’t it go well?”
“Ah, damn brat. Always chattering away.”
The Dharma Master’s lips twisted into a grimace, and Hong Kyung-soo lit his cigarette.
“It got a bit messy, but it’s fine. No problem.”
“Please be careful. I’m worried something might go wrong.”
“Heaven watches over us. Heaven does.”
Hong Kyung-soo gazed up at the night sky through the passenger window, exhaling cigarette smoke like a sigh.
The Dharma Master coughed, but Hong Kyung-soo brought the cigarette to his lips as if his throat were parched.
“Actually, it’s good this happened. I need to verify something once more with this opportunity.”
“You really can’t let go of your doubts.”
The tone was subtly sarcastic, but Hong Kyung-soo didn’t look at the Dharma Master.
He only continued speaking in a murmur, his gaze fixed on the night sky where moonlight shone clearly.
“Spread the word. We need to perform a ritual as soon as the sun rises.”
The Dharma Master watched Hong Kyung-soo in silence, then pulled out his phone.
He began composing a reservation message, while Hong Kyung-soo’s gaze remained fixed on the night sky.
It was the look of someone desperately wishing for something.
***
Morning arrived in silence.
There were no dogs or roosters in this village.
From the floor of Park Su-il’s living room, I gazed at the window growing steadily brighter.
How strange.
Why wouldn’t even a single bird sing?
Was this village truly that desolate?
“Hgh… hgh… hgh…”
Park Su-il, completely possessed by the beast, gasped for breath before me, his wrists and ankles bound with cable ties, able only to writhe helplessly.
“Hghhhh!”
His mouth was gagged with a towel to prevent him from biting his tongue, and his eyes rolled wildly in their sockets.
It was disheartening in every way.
I furrowed my brow deeply and rubbed my eyebrows with my thumb.
“Hghhhhp!”
I’d attempted other methods beyond restraint.
I’d recited the Jade Purity Scripture, the Jade Pivot Scripture, the Yellow Springs Scripture, and the Binding Charm of Sealing Calamity—even the Demon Expulsion Scripture—but Park Su-il’s condition showed no sign of improvement.
‘This is no ordinary spirit.’
The possession was so firmly entrenched that calling it mere “enchantment” would be an understatement.
If I had time and even one or two people to help, I could manage something, but unfortunately the closest Shaman I knew was Hong Kyung-soo.
“Hghh!”
Park Su-il twisted his neck side to side, glaring at me with bloodshot eyes.
“…I understand. I know how much pain you’re in right now.”
“Hghhp!”
“I won’t abandon this.”
I needed to contact Lee Geum-kyung and arrange for Park Su-il to be sent to a trustworthy Shaman.
But that wouldn’t mean his immediate recovery.
Among possession victims, there are those who suffer for years.
Some never receive treatment because they don’t recognize possession, or due to religious objections.
While this wasn’t that case, if things continued as they were, Park Su-il might lose several years before regaining his senses.
The thought alone was cruel.
One day, when consciousness finally returned, to see in the mirror a self aged by years.
“Hgheeeek!”
“…I will save you.”
So please, just endure a little longer for now.
I rubbed my troubled face and pulled out my phone.
I called Chung-geum and explained the situation, and shortly after received a contact number by text.
When I called them, they said they’d send two Dharma Masters and a vehicle right away.
“Thank you for your help.”
(Is the situation quite serious?)
Looking at Park Su-il, whose limbs were bound, I opened my mouth with a troubled expression.
“He’s been possessed by a beast spirit. It’s gripped him so firmly that he can’t move an inch.”
(A long, weary exhale.)
“This one possesses intelligence. It’s no ordinary Malevolent Spirit, so management will matter far more than any shamanic ritual.”
Words meant for the Shaman.
Yet to Kang Hyung-seok, they felt directed at himself.
(Do you have a method in mind?)
At the Shaman’s courteous question, Kang Hyung-seok forced the corners of his mouth upward into a bitter smile.
Though the situation hardly called for it, he sensed that even a forced smile might kindle some spark of resolve within him.
“We must trace it back to its origin. Only then can we understand what we’re truly dealing with.”
(I see. Understood.)
“It shouldn’t take long.”
(Yes.)
The Shaman, aware of the magnitude of the entity Kang Hyung-seok served, answered with quiet composure, and the call ended.
Beep.
After hanging up, Kang Hyung-seok rose, leaving Park Su-il behind.
Park Su-il’s eyes—whites bulging wider than pupils—remained fixed upon him.
“Just give me two days. Two days.”
Kang Hyung-seok pressed the words firmly into the snarling, glowering Park Su-il.
“I’ll find a way by then.”
The Jangsan Tiger had sought to ensnare me.
It had weaponized Park Su-il.
It had emerged in this village.
A beast spirit, yes—but one possessed of cunning intellect and malevolent wisdom.
I had to uncover its true form and obliterate it.
Only then could Park Su-il survive, and only then could the villagers remain safe.
“Grrrraaahhhhh!”
Park Su-il contorted his face and let loose a primal wail.
The sound seemed like a desperate cry.
Find that Jangsan Tiger. Now.
And destroy it.
That was how Kang Hyung-seok perceived it.
***
Vroooom.
As the car carrying Park Su-il left the village, Hong Kyung-soo extinguished his cigarette.
“He’s gone.”
“Yes.”
Inside the car.
The Dharma Master gripping the steering wheel answered while tracking the receding vehicle with his gaze, and Hong Kyung-soo stepped down from the passenger seat, stretching his stiffened body.
Even without the beast, the wind still blows through the village.
Fluttering, fluttering!
His black shamanic robes rippled in the breeze like a sob, and the Musicians waiting in the back seat began stepping out of the car one by one.
They were the ones he’d summoned to conduct the ritual ceremony under his direction.
“Move quickly now. We don’t have time.”
Clatter!
Shamanic implements and traditional instruments spilled forth from the car’s trunk.
Hong Kyung-soo watched as the ritual space was prepared in sequence, then turned his gaze elsewhere.
The Mountain.
Gazing at the Mountain where the dawn glow had not yet fully faded, Hong Kyung-soo pressed his lips together.
Whiiiiistle!
A whistle pierced through the silent village where even birds dared not sing.

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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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