An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 312

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 311
Part 7. A Continuing Bond (2)
Whoosh!
The sacred blade I wielded sliced through the air, cleaving the crimson cord in two.
The severed cord writhed like a snake with its body cut in half, then drooped limply, while the damp and murky air that had filled the Container Housing gradually settled and dissipated.
Creak.
The sealed door swung open once more, and cool, crystalline air crept inside.
I breathed heavily through my nose, my gaze fixed on the two Buddha statues.
Traces like tear marks were visible around their eyes, yet their pupils did not face toward me.
“Huff, huff.”
Breathing hard through my teeth, I turned my head toward the point where the two Buddha statues were gazing.
There was a Window.
When I wiped away the filthy Window with my palm, caked with a hazy layer of dust, a dark Sea came into view.
Yet there had to be a reason why the statues’ gaze was directed toward that place.
‘Everything is sorcery.’
All of it is symbolism.
The bundles of paper hanging from the Ceiling, the two Buddha statues, and the crimson cord connecting them.
Sorcery holds power only when it carries meaning.
Tap tap tap.
I quickly opened the map application on my phone and swung my arm in a figure-eight pattern through the air.
Confirming that the directional sensor was functioning properly, I extended my phone toward the point where the statue’s gaze was directed.
The map screen rotated, clearly revealing which location the statue was gazing upon.
An unnamed Island lay hidden beyond that thick darkness.
‘Found it.’
Just as I was about to rush out of the Container Housing, I turned to look at the Buddha statue.
Then I seized the head of the statue on the right and hurled it to the ground.
Crack!
Hearing the sound of the statue’s head shattering upon impact with the floor, I bolted out of the Container Housing.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh.
Wind pouring through the wide-open door stirred the bundles of paper.
And swept across the statue below.
From within the Buddha statue, its surface now cracked and its true face exposed, a pitch-black centipede writhed and crawled out.
***
Clang!
As the firmly locked door swung open, Go Se-hee’s shoulders trembled.
She watched men pour through the gaping doorway.
Though they wore pitch-black masks—perhaps out of shame—she could recognize one of them as Ko Jun-yeol.
Whoosh! Clatter!
When one of the men forcibly pulled Go Se-hee to her feet, the chain connected to her resisted, dangling against the movement.
But another man unfastened the chain, and Go Se-hee, unable to mount any resistance, was dragged outside the building by the men.
The confinement she had yearned so desperately to escape was finally removed, and she emerged into the outside world she had ached for across years of captivity.
“Uuuuu!”
Yet because she was being freed in the most unwanted manner, Go Se-hee struggled desperately to break free from the men.
It was futile.
Her skeletal limbs, wasted from years of confinement and inadequate meals, could not overcome the strength of two burly men.
Snap!
The two masked men seized Go Se-hee’s wrists.
Then they brought both her arms together and wrapped a thick cable tie around her wrists.
Zip!
As the cable tie bit firmly into her wrists, Go Se-hee’s gaze shifted toward Ko Jun-yeol, who stood motionless.
“Ahh! Ahh!”
The desperate voice of a daughter calling for her father.
But Ko Jun-yeol only bowed his head, utterly still.
“Ahhhhh!”
Go Se-hee wailed as though coughing up blood, but Ko Jun-yeol’s head only lowered further, and another man pulled a pristine white mask over her head.
Then, handling her like an object, he wrote a Chinese character on her back with a marker.
供物—an offering.
It was a mark to signal to the god that she was a sacrifice being presented.
“Ahh….”
In that moment, Go Se-hee’s resistance ceased.
Even through the mask, she could dimly make out her surroundings, and thus confirm that Ko Jun-yeol remained motionless.
Ko Jun-yeol was not saving her.
Consumed by such devastating despair that she had lost all hope in life itself, Go Se-hee offered no resistance as cable ties were bound around her ankles, her eyes fixed only on Ko Jun-yeol.
“It is midnight.”
The voice announcing that the time had come felt familiar.
It was the Neighbor Man—the one who had given her pocket money as a child and treated her kindly, like a niece.
Though hidden by the mask, the aura emanating from his body spoke completely to the emotions Go Se-hee was experiencing.
Snap.
But no one paid it any mind as the men dragged Go Se-hee away and loaded her onto a boat.
“Ahh.”
Go Se-hee called out for her father.
But a fierce wind swept in and swallowed her voice, and the three masked men looked up at the sky.
Dark clouds were rolling in from the five o’clock direction, devouring the stars.
“Susanoo descends upon us.”
As Ko Jun-yeol murmured these words, the men prepared to make their offering.
Rough hands pressed down upon Go Se-hee’s body, and iron chains—prepared beforehand—wound tightly around her frame.
Clank!
“Uuuaaaah!”
As the terror of death crashed over her more violently than the sea wind itself, Go Se-hee thrashed, her mouth gaping wide in resistance.
But the Village was too far away, and there was no one to hear her voice.
Uuuuuung.
From the distance came a sound like a whale’s cry.
Ordinarily, it would have been a siren warning that the sea had grown violent, signaling that the time had come.
Weeeeeeng!
The siren wailed long and sharp, and the men placed their palms against the Boat carrying Go Se-hee.
Grrk.
And they began to push the Boat out toward the Sea.
Now Go Se-hee would be offered to the Sea.
As a living sacrifice, she would pray for the Village’s prosperity and peace.
Was this right?
Could I truly let my daughter go like this?
The thought, suddenly thrust upon him, struck Ko Jun-yeol’s mind with brutal force.
“Ahhhhh!”
Yet Ko Jun-yeol squeezed his eyes shut and ignored his daughter’s screams and pleas.
Once this was over, Ko Jun-yeol would achieve the wish he had so desperately craved.
He would become a respected Shamanic Practitioner.
You were the ones at fault.
You were ugly, repulsive, demonic.
A man as a Shamanic Practitioner?
Could he even perform the role properly?
It should be a woman. Shamanism is a woman’s calling.
Ever since childhood, the Village People had always whispered behind his back.
He had not left the Village because he rejected the Hereditary Shaman Tradition.
He had left because he knew the whispers would never cease, even if he became a Hereditary Shaman.
Crackle, crackle.
Watching the Boat and his daughter drift toward the Sea, Ko Jun-yeol’s face contorted in anguish.
Even now, he wanted to undo everything.
But he had already come too far, and if he did not offer his daughter as a sacrifice, he could not foresee what calamity might befall the Village.
Perhaps that man would come for him.
Perhaps the man who had shown him the way to achieve his wish would appear before him once more.
That terrified him beyond measure.
“Ahhhhhhh!”
More than his daughter’s wails.
Thud.
The moment Ko Jun-yeol placed his hand on the boat, the two other men startled and turned their gaze toward him.
Then it happened.
Creak, creak, creak!
Ko Jun-yeol began pushing the boat carrying Go Se-hee out into the sea.
“I’m sorry.”
For being such a pathetic father, for being a weak human who had to harbor inferiority in the eyes of others.
“…In the next life, in the world to come, please don’t be born as my daughter again.”
I don’t have the shame to face you once more.
Sobbing, Ko Jun-yeol pushed the boat out into the sea.
And when the water reached his chest, the sea received the boat from his hands.
Weeeeeoooow!
The sound of a siren echoed across the water.
Ko Jun-yeol watched the boat drift farther away, weeping silently until his legs gave out and he collapsed.
The men on either side rushed to catch him, but Ko Jun-yeol clawed at the empty air, gripping his chest and releasing sounds like a wounded beast.
***
Weeeeeoooow!
The siren’s wail reached the house where Lee Geum-kyung was held.
The men’s hands, which had been desperately trying to force the door open, paused for a moment before resuming, and the plywood crashed loudly to the floor.
Remaining plywood still held the door shut, but it seemed only a matter of time before everything gave way.
Crash! Crack! Splinter!
It was past midnight.
The heavens opened, and the worlds of gods and humans drew near.
The day when human sacrifice could be made.
Whoooosh!
Yet on a day like this, it was not only a specific deity that drew close to humanity.
Lee Geum-kyung, shaking the Shaman’s Bell, began chanting sutras with a face gone deathly still.
“In the restoration of the Celestial Worthy, after heaven and earth opened, the four seas’ Dragon Kings were born.”
One of those outside who understood the sutra stopped mid-swing with his pickaxe.
The others quickly exchanged glances.
Their eyes were drenched in fear.
“The Dragon King of the East Sea, Gwangdeok the Radiant; the Dragon King of the South Sea, Gwangi the Luminous; the Dragon King of the West Sea, Gwangtaek the Brilliant; the Dragon King of the North Sea, Gwangyeon the Resplendent.”
Whoooosh!
Lee Geum-kyung, holding the Shaman’s Bell and the sacred blade, chanted the Dragon King Sutra in a voice like song.
A sutra offered to the Dragon King whom the Village People had tried to discard and ignore.
“Damn it! Really! Shit!”
The awareness that they were committing acts unworthy before a deity savagely carved through the men’s hearts with terror.
In their panic, they struck the door with pickaxes and spears, desperate to silence Lee Geum-kyung’s words.
Bang! Splinter! Crack!
The door shook as though it might burst open at any moment, and the tremendous noise reverberated through the sealed room.
But Lee Geum-kyung did not stop reciting the Dragon King’s prayer.
“Five-directional sacred grounds and Dragon King deities, all spirits of the Dragon Palace, unite your hearts and minds in accord.”
This was no mere incantation meant to stir guilt.
The most fundamental, most primordial cause.
The absence of the Dragon King.
This prayer was to summon the Dragon King—silenced after losing his seat to a foreign deity—to this place.
A vessel to contain the Dragon King had already been prepared.
“Seize the waters and veins of the underwater palace, let them flow through every corner and crevice, prepare the Dragon King, the Great Dragon King, and grant swift blessings and merit to all living creatures and people.”
Crack!
A thick pickaxe tore a gaping hole through the door.
At the same moment, a cold wind swept in, scattering the hair of Lee Geum-kyung performing the ritual and Shin Jung-ah in prayer.
“Shut that mouth—!”
A voice dripping with murderous intent poured through the hole in the door, filling the room.
Click!
Suddenly the lights in the room went out, and thick darkness engulfed everything.
“Prepare the rising Dragon Palace, let the northern waters grant long life and longevity, let the southern waters grant sages and virtuous gentlemen, let the five-directional waters grant wealth and honor.”
All that could be heard was the sound of wind and Lee Geum-kyung’s incantation.
The atmosphere was so ominous that the men didn’t even dare swing their metal tools at the door, when Lee Geum-kyung’s Shaman’s Bell rang out like thunder.
Clang-clang-clang!
“Let the eastern waters grant the flourishing of descendants, let the western waters grant wealth and fortune, so that there is always enough to eat, enough to use, and enough to spare.”
Something was happening here now.
Those who had committed sin should not be in this place.
Driven by instinctive dread, I wanted to flee immediately, yet my frozen feet refused to obey.
“Ah, ah-ah-ah!”
One man collapsed where he stood, his feet rooted to the ground, while another dropped his pickaxe and covered his eyes with trembling hands.
“On this day, with utmost sincerity, I offer this small devotion before the Dragon King with a heart as vast as mountains.”
Meanwhile, Lee Geum-kyung’s Dragon King prayer rushed toward its conclusion.
“Accept the small as the great, and hear all our humble wishes and desires.”
The Dragon King prayer had ended.
In that same instant, a wind thick with the scent of the sea swept through, swirling within the room like a vortex settling into place.
And then, Shin Jung-ah opened her eyes.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————