An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 301

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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 300
Part 3. Life Has Ended, But the Problem Remains Alive (3)
Abuse is cruel precisely because it never teaches the child that they are being abused.
Kang Hyung-seok watched Kim Jin-woo’s rapidly replaying life with a heavy heart.
The number of insurance policies steadily increasing.
The scars on his body multiplying.
Years accumulating and his height growing.
It wasn’t until Kim Jin-woo entered his mid-teens that he even realized he was being abused.
(She was a cruel woman.)
Even as this unfolded, his Biological Mother’s voice continued like a blade twisting in a wound.
(Afraid the rumors might spread, afraid I might come looking—she even changed his name and moved frequently.)
What must that child have felt, never making a single friend, always standing apart in his class?
What must he have felt, deceived by his Aunt’s lies, forced to hide his true name and go by an alias?
In such circumstances, Jin-woo never even considered running away.
He accepted the repeated abuse and violence as everyday life, believing this was normal.
Violence left scars; abuse left a way of thinking.
(I thought he was doing well.)
No.
He was not.
As Jin-woo grew older, he came to realize he was not normal.
Yet as he entered adolescence, the one he resented most was not his Aunt, but his Biological Mother.
She had abandoned him.
Because my mother abandoned me, I suffer like this.
He truly believed this.
His Aunt’s lies only solidified this conviction.
(I even quit my job and spent months searching for that woman.)
Jin-woo never knew.
What his Biological Mother had felt.
What efforts she had made to find him.
(I kept thinking, perhaps when he comes of age, we’ll be reunited.)
Now that Jin-woo had become an adult, he was stronger than his Aunt.
Though smaller than his peers and lacking muscle, the young man who had completed his military service no longer feared a broomstick in a sealed room.
Rather, as his Aunt began to fear him, Jin-woo finally understood completely that his life had never been normal.
Where is my mother?
Where is that person who once held me warmly in her arms?
(…If only there had been no accident.)
An accident.
That event which forever separated Jin-woo, who had finally decided to find his real mother, from his Biological Mother, who remembered him as Young-jin.
“Drink this before you go.”
A freshly squeezed beverage handed to Jin-woo, who often drove around outside to avoid being with his hateful Aunt.
The water he had bought that day had run out, and his hand reached for a beverage instead.
A faint bitter taste lingered on his tongue.
By the time he realized it was a sedative, it was far too late.
Screech! Crash!
As the car slammed into a tree, the steering wheel struck Kim Jin-woo’s jaw with brutal force.
Blood cascading down his knees and the vehicle tilting ever steeper down the slope.
It was a used car Kim Jin-woo had bought with money he’d saved during his military service.
A car purchased with the resolve that one day, when he discovered his Biological Mother’s whereabouts, he would leave his Aunt’s house without hesitation.
Ironically, that very car was now guiding Kim Jin-woo toward death.
Screech! Splash!
The automobile plunged into the Reservoir, and cold water rushed into the driver’s seat.
Being near the shore, the Reservoir could not swallow the entire vehicle.
But the driver’s seat—it consumed that completely.
(…How much must he have hated me.)
Kang Hyung-seok watched Kim Jin-woo, submerged in water, reaching toward the passenger seat.
The last thing the dying Kim Jin-woo saw was a lantern show of his life.
The eyes of his mother who had loved him when he was young.
A memory he could not forget even in adulthood.
(Sob, sob!)
His ears caught the weeping of his Biological Mother, and his eyes saw Kim Jin-woo’s tears dispersing in the murky water of the Reservoir.
Then the surroundings shifted, and it became day again.
The Reservoir.
Whoooosh.
The cool breeze blowing through the trees sounded like the wailing of the dead.
Kang Hyung-seok exhaled a long breath that froze white in the air.
Witnessing Kim Jin-woo’s entire life had taken only a brief moment, yet the lingering impression burrowed deep into his bones like a chill.
(…Lawyer, please, please help me.)
His Biological Mother’s voice flowing from the Bluetooth earphone calmed his mind.
The amount his Biological Mother hoped to recover from his Aunt through litigation was a mere 2 million won.
Yet beyond the sum, the meaning would matter far more.
I was that child’s mother.
The desire to be recognized as a mother would burn far greater than the 2 million won she could never bring herself to spend out of guilt.
(For today… please just come in. Just in case, if you have any evidence to prove what you just mentioned, prepare it separately.)
(You’re going to help me, aren’t you? That’s what this is, right?)
(I’ll give it serious consideration.)
Kang Hyung-seok removed the earphone from his ear.
Then he picked up his phone, typed a message to Lee Ha-yoon saying he wanted to talk, and turned his head to gaze at the Reservoir.
Cruelly and mercilessly, the Reservoir that had swallowed one person whole held its blue waters with such shameless composure.
***
Thud.
Returning to my car, I leaned back against the seat.
Though the doors were closed and no draft seeped in, the chill trapped in the upholstery pierced through my heavy winter coat.
Yet I didn’t start the engine, simply closing my eyes in silence.
My thoughts had grown heavy.
‘It’s a matter between people.’
Those who commit sin receive karmic retribution.
But karma follows heaven’s law, so it often feels invisible to human eyes.
That’s why some people take the concept of karma lightly, or claim that the wicked often prosper more than the righteous.
This situation would likely be no different.
Sip.
I took a sip of lukewarm coffee from my tumbler, then drew in a deep breath and exhaled slowly.
My breath crystallized white in the cold air, and my eyelids felt parched.
It was because I’d parked in an empty lot with nowhere to shelter from the wind.
If even a lifeless car felt this chill, what must it be like for a victim who grew up without maternal warmth?
Clench.
With my lips pressed firmly together, I took a deep breath through my nose and picked up my phone.
I’d do whatever I could.
The Son is dead, but the Biological Mother remains.
The Aunt who committed the abuse lives openly on this earth, and judging by how cruelly she cast out the Biological Mother, she feels no remorse.
This cannot stand.
If one has abandoned familial bonds, then receive both heaven’s punishment and humanity’s.
To turn away from what I can do is also wrong, so even if there isn’t much a Shaman like me can accomplish, I’ll make the effort.
Tap tap tap.
“Found anything else?”
I sent a text to Shin Yoseph, and a reply came back shortly.
“Still organizing. I’ll send it soon.”
I placed my phone on the dashboard and started the engine.
Having lived an ordinary life, I’d never once visited a Police Station for questioning.
I don’t know the law well, but I know someone who does.
Vroom!
Turning the steering wheel sharply, I began driving toward Lee Ha-yoon’s Lawyer’s Office.
After parking at the building where her office was located, I climbed the stairs and knocked on the door.
Knock knock.
The door opened as if she’d been waiting, but the air greeting me alongside Lee Ha-yoon felt cold.
“Were you cleaning?”
“Just airing it out for a moment.”
It was likely a lie.
My eyes drifted to the vacuum cleaner leaning against the wall as I sat on the sofa.
That’s when I noticed the seat right beside me was deeply indented—and it was painfully obvious who had been sitting there.
“What was your biological mother like when you met her in person?”
“Sigh—”
Lee Ha-yoon, sitting across from me like a student grappling with a difficult question, exhaled deeply.
“To be honest, I’m not sure. It feels like she was lying, but then again, maybe she wasn’t.”
With that, Lee Ha-yoon cast a glance toward Kang Hyung-seok.
Her eyes asked if he’d discovered something.
I nodded.
“Really?”
“What your biological mother said was the truth.”
“…Yes?”
“I saw it myself at the Reservoir. All the way to the moment the accident occurred.”
Lee Ha-yoon’s face stiffened slightly.
She knew I was a Shaman.
But she never imagined something like this would be possible.
“How? How is that even possible?”
“Yes. The accident wasn’t a coincidence either. Your Aunt had given her a sedative.”
Confusion rippled across Lee Ha-yoon’s eyes.
It felt like she’d been struck on the back of the head out of nowhere.
Until moments ago, she’d been wrestling with an unsolvable problem, but suddenly a hint had dropped—one that made her wonder if she should even trust it.
“Wait, wait. Even if everything you’re saying is true, this will get complicated.”
“I understand.”
If I testified at the Police Station, claiming I knew this because I’m a Shaman, it would lack credibility.
Physical evidence or corroborating statements would be necessary.
“Hmm.”
Lee Ha-yoon rubbed her lips, lost in thought, while I turned my gaze toward the slightly open Window.
“The Victim Spirit was inside the Rental House.”
“Yes?”
“A spirit yearning for her mother, yet despite being able to find her now, it remained inside the house.”
Lee Ha-yoon’s brows furrowed, as if she didn’t understand my intent, and I continued in a calm, measured tone.
“There must be something in that house it wanted to protect.”
“…Are you saying that’s evidence?”
“I can’t be certain. And verifying it is beyond my domain.”
“Right. Of course.”
A warrant would be needed.
It would be difficult to proceed with the civil case right away after all.
This was the moment Lee Ha-yoon fell into deep contemplation.
Zing.
My phone rang in my pocket.
I pulled it out to check the message—it was a text saying Shin Yoseph had sent an email.
“Could I use a computer for a moment?”
“Ah, yes!”
Lee Ha-yoon quickly rose from the sofa and approached the computer, moving the mouse to wake the monitor from its slumber.
Kang Hyung-seok settled into the chair, logged into the portal site, and downloaded the attachment from the email Shin Yoseph had sent.
The moment I opened the file, I glanced toward Lee Ha-yoon.
“I’m not well-versed in law, so I’m asking—would this be helpful for you?”
Lee Ha-yoon grasped the mouse and scrolled through the document.
Then, with a somewhat bewildered smile, she looked at me.
“Did you use a private investigator or something like that?”
“Something similar, I suppose.”
We exchanged words that would have made Shin Yoseph emotional, then turned our attention back to the monitor.
There were things written there that would be invaluable to us.
That the Aunt’s profession was an insurance designer.
Testimony from former neighbors about frequent moves.
And even records showing that Kim Young-jin had taken out a 500-million-won life insurance policy with the Aunt as the beneficiary.
“Hah! This person is insane.”
Lee Ha-yoon clicked her tongue upon seeing the life insurance records no one had known about.
“This should be more than enough… I think we can make something of this.”
“Could I ask you to handle the rest?”
Lee Ha-yoon smiled with confidence, as if to say trust only her.
“This is a meal already laid out on the table.”
“I’m counting on you.”
For some reason, my tone suggested I would be stepping back, and Lee Ha-yoon’s eyes widened.
“Why?”
“Each of us has our own area of expertise.”
I smiled faintly and stood from the chair to give her space.
“I’ll take care of guiding the Victim Spirit to peace and comforting the Biological Mother.”
Lee Ha-yoon’s eyes conveyed both apology and gratitude toward me for preparing everything.
Then she nodded heavily.

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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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