An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 299

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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 298
Part 3. Life Has Ended, But the Problem Remains Alive (1)
“You have arrived at your destination. Navigation complete.”
Vroom.
As Kang Hyung-seok slowed the car, he spotted Lee Ha-yoon waving her hand in front of the alley.
When people think of lawyers, they typically envision formal suits and polished appearances.
However, Lee Ha-yoon wore casual clothes indistinguishable from those of Shin Jung-ah sitting in the passenger seat, projecting an approachable warmth rather than the rigid formality one might expect from her profession.
Click.
“How have you been? I hope you haven’t been waiting long in this cold.”
“Not at all! I just arrived myself.”
Despite her words, her body trembled visibly, prompting Kang Hyung-seok to offer a wry smile and a slight bow.
“I apologize. I said I’d hurry, but this is my first time here.”
“Please, don’t apologize. I’m already so grateful that you came.”
Lee Ha-yoon sniffled as she spoke, and Shin Jung-ah pulled tissues from her bag, handing them over.
“Blow your nose. It’s disgusting.”
Lee Ha-yoon shot a glance at Shin Jung-ah before turning her attention back to Kang Hyung-seok.
“So, you’ve heard about the situation?”
“Yes. Deputy Manager Lee briefed me on it.”
“That’s a relief.”
Kang Hyung-seok offered Lee Ha-yoon an apologetic smile as she sniffled, then shifted his gaze past her.
“Shall we head over now?”
“Yes, of course.”
The three of them proceeded deeper into the residential district.
Whoooosh.
A motorcycle reeking of fried chicken passed them—an utterly ordinary residential neighborhood.
So ordinary that ghosts, victim spirits, and the legacies of dead children seemed distant and unreal.
Which made the irony all the more palpable.
Footstep, footstep.
Someone had died.
A person had died.
It was nothing extraordinary, yet the living were fighting.
They were locked in conflict over the dead child’s inheritance—the adoptive mother who raised him against the biological mother who gave birth to him.
“Fried chicken delivery.”
A delivery worker’s voice calling out at a house’s entrance, a child receiving the order with eager eyes, and a mother standing behind him—the scene had entered their field of vision by chance, yet clung to their awareness like a wedge driven deep.
It was as the three of them drew closer to their destination.
“What’s this woman doing here again?”
“Sister-in-law, please don’t be like this. At least let me have the child’s belongings…!”
“There’s nothing! I have nothing to give you, so stop coming back here!”
In the residential district as the sun descended, the voices were unpleasantly loud.
Though he had done nothing wrong, Kang Hyung-seok’s pace slowed; Shin Jung-ah turned her head toward the source of the commotion; and Lee Ha-yoon stopped walking entirely, pointing toward the house from which the voices came.
From their expressions, I could tell.
That house was their destination.
If so, the middle-aged woman inside the entrance would be the Aunt, and the woman standing awkwardly outside would be the Biological Mother.
“Get out! I said get out! Don’t you dare show your face here again!”
Thud!
“Ugh!”
As the woman stumbled backward, the Aunt slammed the door shut as if she’d been waiting for this moment.
It was an coldly excessive reaction, though not entirely incomprehensible.
If the Biological Mother was someone who had abandoned her parental duties, such shameless behavior was hardly rare.
Tap, tap.
The three of us watched in silence as the Biological Mother retreated weakly into the distance.
Once she disappeared completely from view, the entrance door opened again, and the Aunt emerged with her fists clenched.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
As if to ward off bad luck, she scattered coarse salt, then closed the door again and engaged the lock.
“Sigh.”
I exhaled a heavy sigh and cast a glance at Lee Ha-yoon that said this wouldn’t be easy.
“Yes, yes, that’s why it’s such a headache.”
Lee Ha-yoon, speaking in a low voice, sent me a look full of expectation.
There were no words, but her eyes asked if I could see the Victim Spirit.
“Since we’ve come this far, let me try.”
I pulled the Shaman’s Bell from the bag I was carrying.
It was a ritual implement rarely seen by ordinary people, so even though Lee Ha-yoon kept her lips sealed, her gaze clung persistently to the Shaman’s Bell.
Jingle.
It felt quite surreal to be ringing the Shaman’s Bell in an ordinary residential district.
However, since there was a matter to resolve, and only the spirit of the dead could provide answers to the problems between the living, I continued to ring the Shaman’s Bell.
Then I tilted my head to the side.
“Is it working?”
“Just a moment.”
I signaled for quiet and approached the house where the Aunt was.
I kept my attention on the Shaman’s Bell, but it made no sound.
I saw nothing with my spiritual sight either.
‘Has the spirit already ascended?’
A spirit without lingering attachments does not remain on this earth.
Had it departed in peace?
If so, was the Biological Mother simply making one-sided claims?
Whoosh.
I stood before the firmly closed door, above the scattered salt, and looked up at the house.
It was an utterly ordinary three-story residential building.
The outer walls were built of red brick, with exposed stairs and acrylic sheeting forming a ceiling—a typical structure of its kind.
Gazing at the illuminated third floor, I rounded my lips thoughtfully.
Whiiiiik.
A whistle so faint that others would struggle to hear it, yet the intent was unmistakable.
It was the Calling Technique.
The act of locating and summoning a Victim Spirit.
Whiiik, whiiiiik.
Adjusting the pitch and duration of my whistle as though tuning a radio’s frequency, I stood motionless and gazed up at the 3rd Floor window.
The whistle ceased, my eyes narrowing to slits.
‘There it is.’
The Son’s Spirit peered down at me from just below the inside of the window, eyes barely visible above the sill.
Its skin, pale as flour-dusted porcelain, bore no resemblance whatsoever to that of a living person.
“Is it not working?”
“Wait a moment.”
The voices of Shin Jung-ah and Lee Ha-yoon drifted from afar, but I kept my gaze fixed solely on the spirit, rolling my tongue within my mouth.
‘What is this?’
Looking upon that spirit, my chest burned with heat.
A strange taste lingered in my mouth, and the scent of char drifted through my nostrils.
That spirit has something it wishes to say.
Waralang.
I shook the Shaman’s Bell softly and spoke to the spirit with only my lips.
If it had words to share, I would listen—so let it speak.
Sssslowly.
The spirit’s head rose gradually, as though surfacing from beneath the surface.
And as the spirit’s head became fully visible, I exhaled a long breath between my lips.
The spirit cannot speak.
It has no jaw.
Its tongue hung elongated like a necktie, making speech utterly impossible.
Squeeeak.
The door began to open.
My Aunt emerged carrying a bag of food waste, and I shifted my steps in the opposite direction from where my Biological Mother had gone, as though nothing had occurred.
All the while, I concealed the Shaman’s Bell from view.
Splurch.
Like the sound of blood-soaked meat being discarded, the wet squelch of food waste being dumped pursued me like a shadow.
***
Beep, whirr.
At a nearby 24-Hour Unmanned Cafe, Shin Jung-ah and Kang Hyung-seok retrieved their coffees.
It was just a place with two vending machines, but the fact that they had decaffeinated coffee was genuinely moving.
It cost a few hundred won more than regular coffee, but it was far better than drinking regular coffee and losing sleep through the night.
Click.
After pulling three cups of coffee, Kang Hyung-seok sat at a table and shifted his gaze toward Lee Ha-yoon.
“Where should I begin?”
“You said it exists, didn’t you?”
“Yes. But the situation wasn’t conducive to conversation.”
The eyes of Lee Ha-yoon and Shin Jung-ah, sitting side by side, silently asked why.
But if I described the appearance of the Son’s Spirit, I feared I’d have nightmares, so I swallowed my words along with the coffee.
“Do you happen to know how the son died?”
“From what I heard, it was an accident…”
“A car accident?”
“Ah, yes! That’s right.”
Lee Ha-yoon, startled enough to clap her hands, had that look in her eyes—’this person really is skilled’—at that very moment.
“This will be harder on you than on me, Ha Yoon.”
“Yes…?”
“That’s why I’m asking—are you prepared to see this through to the end?”
Kang Hyung-seok met her gaze as if peering into Lee Ha-yoon’s pupils.
I had cast a weighty question, but I couldn’t explain the specific reason.
The impression, energy, and atmosphere emanating from the Son’s Spirit had been unsettling.
There was clearly something dark lurking beneath the surface, as dark as this coffee, but this matter wasn’t about the dead.
The son’s life had ended, but the problem remained alive.
The living held that problem in their grip, standing on the scales.
“If you have no intention of continuing, let it go. That would be better.”
“Then…”
“I’ll perform a Chondogut ritual. That’s all I can do.”
I could resolve matters of the dead.
But matters of the living were beyond my reach.
Lee Ha-yoon, being a lawyer, would have to be the one to help.
“But if you decide to see this through, Ha Yoon, I’ll help you too.”
The atmosphere had grown heavier than expected, and Shin Jung-ah quietly sipped her coffee while gauging the mood. Lee Ha-yoon’s brow furrowed with thought, wrinkles forming beneath her chin, before she finally spoke.
“Lawyers exist to resolve disputes, don’t they? And being a lawyer is my profession.”
“…It might not pay well.”
“That’s a bit of a problem, but… hmm.”
Lee Ha-yoon narrowed her brow and let out a pained sound before releasing a heavy sigh.
“Still, this is my job, so it seems right to do it.”
Kang Hyung-seok nodded gravely, as if in agreement.
Then he turned his gaze to Shin Jung-ah, who wore an expression asking ‘why?’
She probably wouldn’t understand.
Why I looked at her.
Or what I was thinking.
‘I can certainly see why those two are friends.’
They were friends because they shared similar traits.
Just like Shin Jung-ah, Lee Ha-yoon possessed a nature that compelled her to step forward whenever she deemed something her responsibility.
“Sigh.”
Knowing that their resolve and determination were far from trivial, I exhaled heavily and turned my gaze toward Lee Ha-yoon.
“As I mentioned earlier, communicating with a Victim Spirit is not easy.”
“…Right?”
“So it seems I’ll need to speak with someone living instead. Could you bring the Biological Mother to the office?”
“That’s not difficult, but are you sure about this?”
“Ha Yoon will need to conduct the conversation. You can organize it later and relay it to me.”
“If it’s possible, I’ll seek consent and arrange for the counseling session to begin right away.”
“…You can manage that?”
“Doing it without consent would be illegal, but with consent, we can proceed legally. And if she knows a third party is listening, she won’t be able to lie or act awkwardly.”
Things were beginning to take shape.
As time grew late and everyone was about to stand, Shin Jung-ah spoke up.
“Wait, Manager Kang—you’re working normally tomorrow, right?”
“I’ll decide based on the situation.”
“Don’t tell me you’re taking a half day off…?”
“No. There’s another way.”
Questions flickered in the eyes of Shin Jung-ah and Lee Ha-yoon, and I shook my head with a smile before tidying the table.
Then I left the 24-Hour Unmanned Cafe first and pulled out my phone.
Someone who could create time without taking a half day off, and who could conduct additional investigations if necessary.
A reliable ally and trustworthy person.
Beep beep beep.
After finding Shin Yoseph’s contact, I immediately pressed the call button.

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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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