An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 25

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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 25
Part 8. Spirit, Spirit, Spirit (3)
Whoooosh!
The bamboo tube trembled as something surged upward from within.
The vibration traveled through my hands, yet my eyes perceived nothing at all.
Kang Hyung-seok stood motionless, watching the bamboo tube expel the invisible.
‘It is being released.’
The crown prince’s vengeful spirit trapped within this tube, the Young Girl’s soul, the phantom of the child murdered by her own mother.
Clang-clang-clang!
Kang Hyung-seok shook the Shaman’s Bell and opened his mouth wide.
“Jisim gwi myeong rye, sibangs beop gye, sangju sambo, namu jijang wang bosalma hasal.”
It is said that Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva guides the crown prince’s vengeful spirit liberated from the resentment.
“The Great Compassionate Bodhisattva of boundless vows possesses all subtle virtues and merits; the great treasure of liberation emanates from this place; the clear and luminous wisdom of all Bodhisattvas; the guide leading all beings to Nirvana.”
Chanting sutras in praise of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, Kang Hyung-seok prayed for the Young Girl’s soul, bound by resentment, to be completely liberated.
‘A spirit murdered by her own mother.’
Wrap her in your robes.
Wipe away the Young Girl’s tears.
Clang-clang-clang!
Shaking the Shaman’s Bell, I continued chanting the sutras until the bamboo tube fell silent.
And so it continued for some time.
At last, the bamboo tube—now emptied of all—grew still.
Kang Hyung-seok looked inside, then let the bamboo tube fall limply from his grasp.
Thud.
The bamboo tube struck the ground with a clear, hollow sound.
There was nothing left inside.
Not the Young Girl’s severed arm, not her soul, not her spirit—nothing remained.
***
Ding!
Sunlight streamed through the motel window, piercing the corners of my eyes.
I groaned.
Rising from bed with a pained sound, I pulled my phone—still connected to its charger—closer and checked the caller ID.
Ha Jang-seo.
Sleep vanished from my face in an instant. I sat up on the bed and pressed the answer button.
“Yes, sir! Is something wrong?”
(Hey, Kang—listen.)
“Yes, go ahead.”
No greeting, and I’d only heard his opening words.
Yet I could already tell that nothing troubling had happened.
His voice was urgent, but there was no negativity in it.
(You know that hiking trip we planned for today? Let’s postpone it!)
The sudden cancellation was unexpected, but I silently lifted the corners of my mouth into a smile.
I could sense what had happened to him.
“Is something the matter, sir?”
I asked, feigning ignorance.
(I, I think I need to go to the hospital. When I woke up, all the rashes on my body are gone!)
As expected.
Since I’d anticipated all of this, I maintained my smile.
The curse had vanished.
I had erased it.
With the curse gone—the one that sickened anyone who merely came near it—Ha Jang-seo’s mysterious illness had no choice but to disappear as well.
“Really? That’s wonderful. Truly wonderful.”
(This… how did this even happen, I…)
Ha Jang-seo’s voice trembled like someone who had received a miracle they’d desperately prayed for.
(My wife is going crazy. She was so shocked. Even when she’d encounter wild boars without flinching, she’s startled and flipping out now. Hehehehe.)
“You must have been under tremendous stress all this time, sir.”
(Oh my, really. Sigh.)
Ha Jang-seo, who had been deeply worried, trailed off.
“Sir, please go to the hospital right away first. And once you get the results, be sure to let me know.”
(Yes, yes. I will. I have a good feeling about this. My body feels so light.)
“I’m so relieved. Truly. I hope you get a clean bill of health!”
(That would be the best! Even if it’s not a complete recovery, this is more than enough to farm! If you say I’m fully cured, I’ll take back everything about quitting farming and plant garlic for a thousand years. So I’ll come down again next year!)
“Really?”
(Of course. If they say I’m completely cured, I’ll cancel all that talk about retiring and plant garlic forever and ever, so I’ll definitely come back next year!)
I exhaled silently, my face showing relief.
Then I heard Ha Jang-seo’s wife shouting from the distance, “Get ready quickly!” and I opened my mouth.
“That’s great! Now hurry and go to the hospital!”
(Yes, yes!)
When the call ended, I set my phone down on my lap.
My smile remained, but my expression betrayed the weight of my thoughts.
There was certainly much to think about.
Recalling the woman who had murdered the Young Girl and the slave trade, my lips drooped.
Yet soon I thought of Ha Jang-seo’s recovery and the Young Girl’s liberation from bondage, and I exhaled deeply.
“Let’s think of only good things.”
With a lightness matching my unburdened heart, I rose from the bed and prepared to leave the Motel.
I washed with hot water, changed into fresh clothes I had brought, and sent a text to Namgoong Min-ah.
Bzzzzt!
Startled by the incoming call, I quickly pressed the answer button.
“You’re awake?”
“Yes, sir.”
Namgoong Min-ah’s voice was subdued.
I didn’t know that the Young Girl who had suffered the slave trade was her friend.
So I continued speaking with only confusion in my mind.
“Come out whenever you’re ready. The hiking trip is cancelled—we’re heading back to the Company.”
“Yes. I’ll be right out.”
I looked at my phone with a puzzled expression and ended the call.
After Namgoong Min-ah and I had a quick breakfast at a nearby Gukbap Restaurant, we got in the car.
Namgoong Min-ah remained quiet until I set the navigation, then spoke as we left Danyang.
“I had a dream last night.”
“Your expression wasn’t good this morning—was it a nightmare?”
“No.”
Namgoong Min-ah smiled bitterly and shook her head.
“You know that friend I mentioned yesterday?”
“Ah, the one you did that spirit-summoning ritual with.”
“She appeared in my dream.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
The conversation stalled, and an awkward silence filled the car.
Then Namgoong Min-ah took a deep breath, as if organizing her thoughts and feelings.
“She was funny even in the dream—she asked me to do that spirit-summoning ritual with her again.”
“Haha.”
Finding the dream oddly amusing, I laughed without thinking.
“She must miss you a lot. Let’s meet her during the next vacation.”
“No. I can’t meet her anymore.”
“These days, you can find people easily through social media, can’t you?”
Namgoong Min-ah smiled bitterly and shook her head.
“I’ll just be content with meeting her in my dreams.”
Her demeanor spoke volumes, so I fell silent.
Then he drew a deep breath through his nose and opened his mouth.
“What was your friend’s name again?”
“Yoon Bo-mi.”
Kang Hyung-seok drove with a troubled gaze fixed ahead.
‘So that’s why.’
The reason Namgoong Min-ah’s expression had been so poor.
The young girl who had been cursed and Namgoong Min-ah were friends.
‘Is this also your will?’
I wondered if the Spirit had sent Kang Hyung-seok and Namgoong Min-ah here to settle what needed to be settled.
“Are you alright?”
Namgoong Min-ah cast a startled glance at Kang Hyung-seok, as if he had glimpsed into her innermost thoughts.
Then, contrary to her lowered eye corners, the corners of her mouth lifted.
“There’s nothing to be alright or not alright about.”
Kang Hyung-seok watched Danyang receding in the rearview mirror and spoke in a calm voice.
“Let’s leave it as a memory.”
“That seems right.”
“But you said you performed a spirit divination in your dream? What did you ask?”
Namgoong Min-ah blinked several times, then turned her head toward the window and answered.
“The spirit asked if I would be happy.”
“Did the answer come out well?”
Perhaps Namgoong Min-ah had wanted to hide her expression.
But her face was reflected in the car window, so I could see it.
“Yes. The spirit said my friend is a gift.”
Kang Hyung-seok turned his gaze forward, pretending not to see her expression.
What had been resolved was not only the young girl’s spirit and Ha Jang-seo.
Namgoong Min-ah’s memories had also been resolved.
“You must be exhausted. Get some rest. I’ll wake you when we arrive.”
“I’m sorry, Director.”
Namgoong Min-ah leaned her head against the window.
But she did not fall asleep, and instead gazed out at Danyang drifting mournfully past the car window.
Kang Hyung-seok knew she had not fallen asleep.
Yet he said nothing and drove on in silence.
For now, this seemed like the right thing to do.
***
Drip, drip, drip.
Murky water fell from the ceiling in steady intervals, like sand through an hourglass.
Though it was daytime, the surroundings remained shrouded in darkness.
Such was the inevitable nature of a deep cave.
Scratch, whoosh!
The man struck a match and lit a candle whose wax had melted grotesquely down its sides.
With practiced and deliberate care, he kindled each candle one by one.
As more candles ignited, the space around him blazed with crimson light.
A Spirit Shrine, sacred implements, flags, a vessel filled with blood.
Before them stood a man in black robes, his long hair cascading down as he lifted his gaze toward the wall.
A taxidermied raven hung there, decomposing.
“Miryul dua ga de miryul dua ga sa miryul du pa ra ni.”
As he chanted, his eyes bulged with intense concentration, fixed upon the maggot-infested bird.
“Miryul du sa ra na miryul du ju ta na miryul du wi ta ri.”
Upon uttering the incantation to ward off malevolent forces, the maggots devouring the raven scattered and writhed away from the platform in frantic retreat.
“Haaaaah.”
A deep sigh escaped him, and his parched lips moved silently.
Yun jeon tae heo ho geom ji cho.
Sa ha sa i heuk chim heuk bu.
O bang bae hoe il jang ji yeo.
Cheon ji hwang in an pil nae seo.
He was a Shaman.
Though he recited incantations from Taoism and Tantric Buddhism, he was a Shaman who wielded the Shaman’s Bell and carried the divine blade.
Waralalarang!
As if to prove his identity, he shook a cord wound between his fingers, adorned with bells, producing a resonant sound.
“One who possesses what must not be possessed walks freely, and one who made a wrong choice protects it.”
The man murmured toward the raven on the wall in a voice as hollow as the cave itself.
“In correcting the profane, life is consumed, and even decline becomes the righteous path.”
Waralang! Waralarang!
As he rang the Shaman’s Bell, dark crimson blood flowed from the raven’s mouth and eyes, streaming down the wall.
As the shadow-like bloodstains descended to the platform, the candles burned with even greater ferocity, illuminating the surroundings with fierce brilliance.
“This is the law of heaven, the principle of earth. In affirming the profane and acknowledging the sacred, acknowledgment becomes heaven’s will, and heaven’s will becomes acknowledgment.”
The man’s voice resonated through the cave with perfect calm.
Yet the candles danced as if caught in a typhoon, and shadows flickered silently in response.
Crackle.
He withdrew a piece of paper from his robes and held it toward the flames.
The thin paper, used for writing talismans, bore someone’s birth chart and name inscribed in Chinese characters.
Whoosh!
As he burned it like an offering to the divine, the man opened his mouth.
“Man ta ni na da ma ni sa ma ni ma ha ni ra mo ga ni o ra ni mo ta ta ta jae cha pi du ma il.”
The man withdrew parts of beasts from his bosom.
Raven feathers, a rat’s tail, a serpent’s head.
As he placed each desiccated specimen above the candle flame one by one, the wax collapsed and the fire consumed them.
With reverent devotion, he performed the dark ritual, bringing his palms together and bowing his head three times.
Then, as a final act, he withdrew a bottle from his bosom and uncorked it.
From within, he drew forth a cord woven from human hair and tiger fur, and consigned even that to the flames.
A resonant chime rang out!
The man shook the Shaman’s Bell and, with hands pressed together, bowed deeply.
In that same moment, wind swept through and extinguished the candles one by one.
Within the darkness that consumed everything around him, the man’s form seemed to dissolve, and a sickly, acrid stench permeated the air.
A final gust!
The last candle flickered out, and the cave was enveloped in absolute darkness.
Then the low growl of a tiger echoed briefly through the cave before fading into silence.

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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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