An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 314

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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 314
Part 7. A Continuing Bond (4)
Sorcery is symbolism.
Sorcery is performed with intent concealed within symbols.
Therefore, the moment unwanted symbols and intentions intervene, sorcery shatters.
This is called negation.
Kang Hyung-seok was the negation of human sacrifice.
Crack!
Kang Hyung-seok pulled Go Se-hee tightly into his embrace to share more of his warmth, and the character for “offering” written across her back was concealed as if it must never be revealed to the world.
Because of this, the sorcery shattered.
The ritual to offer the Dragon King and the Hereditary Shaman to a foreign god had failed.
Whoooosh!
The wind that had been blowing grew violent like a scream, yet it no longer carried the same sense of threat as before.
Susanoo did not receive the offering.
Years of waiting became nothing, and nothing he desired would be achieved.
Rumble! Flash!
Lightning flickered and thunder roared across the sky, appearing like the confrontation of god against god.
You are unnecessary to this land—withdraw!
As if speaking these words, the sky released a terrifying sound and continuously burst with brilliant light.
Kang Hyung-seok looked up at that sky and removed his backpack.
Then he grasped the Shaman’s Bell in his hand.
Yet because his hand trembled, the Shaman’s Bell rattled and produced only a shallow sound.
Clang!
Unsatisfied with this, Kang Hyung-seok squeezed every ounce of strength from within and shook the Shaman’s Bell vigorously.
“Homage to the Azure Emperor of the East, the Dragon King of Heaven!”
Then he released a hoarse voice toward the sky.
“Homage to the Crimson Emperor of the South, the Dragon King of Heaven!”
It was the Heavenly Dragon Sutra.
“Homage to the White Emperor of the West, the Dragon King of Heaven!”
The Heavenly Dragon Sutra is a prayer to the Dragon King.
“Homage to the Black Emperor of the North, the Dragon King of Heaven!”
A prayer asking the Dragon King to annihilate all evil.
“Homage to the Yellow Emperor of the Center, the Dragon King of Heaven!”
It is also a sutra used when praying for the protection of the body.
“Green Dragon on the left, White Tiger on the right, Red Phoenix in front, Black Tortoise behind—dispel all illness and calamity, ward off all misfortune!”
May the Four Directional Deities also aid the Dragon King.
“Iron Horse General, traversing the five directions, guardian of the wheel of karma and compassion.”
Protect us.
This sea, the Hereditary Shaman.
May the bond connected through the Dragon King’s guidance never become meaningless.
Drive away the god that sought to devour humans, and protect the Hereditary Shaman Tradition.
A deep rumble echoed across the heavens.
Brilliant azure light embroidered the entire sky.
The wind howling overhead grew fiercer, tearing through the clouds.
A rumble! A flash!
The lightning did not strike down toward the Sea.
Like a warning to the god that coveted these waters, the heavens pressed down from above.
And Kang Hyung-seok witnessed it.
Dragons between the clouds and a massive human form.
A flash!
Lightning illuminated the entire sky, followed immediately by thunder that shook the Sea.
The human form revealed between the clouds tilted sharply, and I felt the direction of the wind shift.
No—the wind was subsiding.
A great whooshing sound!
Kang Hyung-seok shook the Shaman’s Bell toward the heavens.
“Wind General, dispel evil spirits and malevolent ghosts, let no harm enter.”
I simply prayed that everything would return as it was.
With desperate sincerity, I concluded the prayer in a low voice.
“Om, swift swift command, svaha.”
A deep rumble shook the sky.
The heavens cried out loudly.
Then came a great wind that felt like a sigh, and the boat, which had been rocking up and down on the waves, began to settle.
A rumble! A deep rumble!
The thunder persisted.
Yet Kang Hyung-seok came to know it instinctively.
The god had departed.
The Dragon King had returned, and the Hereditary Shaman Tradition was protected.
“…Thank you.”
Muttering the prayer, I breathed deeply, my shoulders heaving.
Then, overwhelmed by creeping exhaustion and relief, I slowly bowed my head.
Though I knew this was no time to falter, my consciousness grew increasingly hazy.
A soft thud.
The Shaman’s Bell rolled from the sleeping Kang Hyung-seok’s hand.
The now-tranquil Namhae Sea cradled him gently, the wind itself stilled as it rocked the boat softly up and down.
***
Shin Jung-ah turned her gaze away from the sea.
Then, meeting Lee Geum-kyung’s eyes, she opened her mouth.
It was all over.
The twisted things had been set right.
Though there was no sound, Lee Geum-kyung, who could hear the Dragon King’s words, brought her palms together and raised them in a deep bow of gratitude.
“Thank you. Thank you.”
It was just after the men trembling with fear outside the door, still prostrate, had harbored an inexpressible sense of relief in their chests.
The rest is your work.
The Dragon King’s voice continued, as if he were about to withdraw.
You must correct your wrongdoings and aid those in desperation. Turn away from sin and practice virtue.
Those words flew like a dagger, piercing through the hearts of the village men.
Thud! Thud!
Like people who had faced a reaper of the dead, they struck their foreheads against the ground, and Lee Geum-kyung spoke.
“…May your wishes be fulfilled.”
It was right after that.
Shin Jung-ah sat down on the floor.
It was the exact same posture she had held while praying at first.
Whoooosh.
A long breath flowed from her lips.
Her eyes were closed, and her head bowed downward.
The Dragon King had left Shin Jung-ah’s body, yet her posture remained unbroken, sitting like a statue of Maitreya Buddha.
Swish.
You’ve endured much.
Lee Geum-kyung spoke silently and raised her palms in respect to Shin Jung-ah.
The people outside the door remained prostrate as well, as if paying homage to her for having received the divine.
***
Whooooosh!
The distant sound stirred Kang Hyung-seok back to consciousness.
Through bleary eyes, I looked toward the source of the noise, yet everything felt like a mirage.
However, a single boat moving with powerful floodlights like a squid fishing vessel came into sharp focus, and the whistle emanating from it was vivid and unmistakable.
There—a boat.
Clang!
The moment I tried to move toward the boat while cradling Go Se-hee, the iron chain connecting us held me back.
‘Damn it.’
Certain that both of us would perish in the sea otherwise, I opened my mouth toward the boat.
“…Help!”
I tried to cry out that there were people here, but my ravaged vocal cords could produce no intelligible words.
Thud!
So I pounded against the boat.
Yet the sound was far too faint to reach the distant vessel.
Thud! Thud!
Unable to do nothing, I continued pounding against the boat.
And with only my lips moving, I recited a prayer.
‘I beseech the Dragon King who governs the waters, seeking true enlightenment. Namu ilsim bongcheong, namu ilsim bongcheong, namu ilsim bongcheong.’
Whooooosh! Whooooosh!
‘May the gates of the Doriteon Dragon King Palace open, granting me the true dharma and wisdom of enlightenment. I earnestly pray for this karmic encounter in this moment.’
Go Se-hee, cradled in my arms, was bound to the Dragon King through karmic ties.
Please, I implored, watch over us until the very end so that this connection does not fade into meaningless oblivion.
Thud!
As I pounded, I spotted the Shaman’s Bell that had fallen nearby.
Seizing it and raising it high, I gazed at the departing boat and shook it.
Clang clang clang clang clang!
That was when it happened.
Rumble rumble rumble!
The silent sky cried out once more.
And then,
Crack! Boom!
Lightning flashed as if announcing my presence in this place.
Crack! Crack boom! Rumble rumble!
The lightning flickering above my head and the thunder spreading across the sea seized the departing boat.
Whooooosh!
The boat answered with its whistle, and I continued shaking the Shaman’s Bell.
Clang clang clang! Clang clang clang clang clang!
As the Shaman’s Bell rang, the boat began moving toward me.
In the end, it was human.
Even if it were the work of gods and divinity, the beginning and end were ultimately the work of humans.
Kang Hyung-seok had saved Go Se-hee, and now someone was coming to save him.
Hoooooot!
The boat’s horn blared as it drew steadily closer, and Kang Hyung-seok lowered the hand holding the Shaman’s Bell, embracing Go Se-hee as he opened his mouth wide.
“…Here.”
His frozen lips cracked and bled, and a thin, strained voice rasped painfully from his throat.
“Here! There are people…!”
Kang Hyung-seok called out again and again, struggling to catch his breath.
And he looked up at the boat drawing near.
It was a mid-sized fishing vessel roughly the size of two buses lashed together, and a man in the railing was leaning out precariously far over the side.
“Kang Hyung-seok!”
The voice of the man in the black padded jacket was familiar.
Kang Hyung-seok looked up at the figure pressed against the railing and laughed, forcing the breath from his lungs.
“…You crazy bastard.”
It was Shin Yoseph.
It was Kang Hyung-seok who had told him the location of this village.
And it was Shin Yoseph who had told him about everything entangled with this village.
Kang Hyung-seok had said there was no need to come all this way just because the distance was far, but that stubborn fool had stubbornly made his way out to sea to find him.
That very stubbornness had saved Kang Hyung-seok’s life.
“You crazy son of a bitch!”
Shin Yoseph, holding a lantern, looked down at him with an expression difficult to describe.
“Wait! I’m coming to get you now! Don’t lose consciousness!”
Shin Yoseph ran toward the captain’s quarters.
In the meantime, Kang Hyung-seok bowed his head while still holding Go Se-hee, and laughed through ragged breaths.
He couldn’t explain why.
“Ha, haha. Ha.”
Whirrrrr!
Above his head, as he laughed painfully through his split lips, the fishing vessel’s crane began to move.
And a ladder descended, with a man who appeared to be the Ship Captain hurrying down.
To rescue Kang Hyung-seok and Go Se-hee.
***
Whoooosh.
There was no malice in the wind that blew.
The siren had long since ceased, and the men who had offered Go Se-hee as a human sacrifice pulled off their masks like shedding a second skin, casting glances mixed with confusion and fear toward Ko Jun-yeol.
Ko Jun-yeol, who had removed his mask long ago, stood vacant-eyed at the seaside, gazing out at the sea.
Not much time had passed since I sent Go Se-hee away.
Yet in that brief span, I appeared a decade older, my eyes wide open as I stared only into the black expanse of water.
“Did it… work out?”
It was merely a simple question.
And yet Ko Jun-yeol felt his heart grow cold as though he were facing a murderer.
“It did work out, didn’t it?”
Ko Jun-yeol could not answer.
He was never a shaman to begin with.
He could not know what transpired in the sea beyond his sight.
“The sea has grown calm, hasn’t it?”
Another man spoke as if to tell him to stop asking, and Ko Jun-yeol’s vacant eyes trembled before he averted his gaze.
True to the man’s words, the sea had indeed grown calm, yet strangely, my heart felt no relief.
I thought perhaps it was because I had sent my daughter away with my own hands, but within my chest, something thick and serpentine seemed to coil.
‘Something is wrong.’
There were no words to explain it.
But the sea felt as though it were no longer on my side.
If Susanoo had truly taken the Dragon King’s place, I should not feel this way.
Whoooosh!
Am I the only one who finds this wind unsettling?
Ko Jun-yeol could no longer bear to look at the sea and bowed his head further.
Then, as if fleeing from the wind itself, he turned his body away.
“…Ah.”
The unconscious sigh escaped because of the look in their eyes.
Until yesterday—no, until just hours ago—these two men had regarded me as someone extraordinary, but now their eyes harbored deep distrust.
Perhaps those eyes would follow me for the rest of my life.
At that thought, my hair stood on end and chills ran down my spine.
“It must have worked out.”
Ko Jun-yeol did not answer the man’s question and turned his gaze away.
The sea, darkened by shadow, stretched before him, yet even that felt like one vast, watching eye, and I clutched at my pounding chest.

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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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