An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 34

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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 33
Part 3. Waving the Burlap Cloth (2)
This was no mere illusion.
Not just the agony of the flesh, but the torment of the soul itself flooded through me.
Everything felt achingly real, as though I had become Kim Soon-hee.
Crash!
The moment Kim Soon-hee kicked the door, Kang Hyung-seok’s face contorted with despair.
The door would not open.
Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash!
“Help! Someone help! There’s someone here! Please!”
Kim Soon-hee’s voice tore through the air as she seized the handle with both hands.
The scorching metal seared her palms, flesh charring with a sickening stench that rose into the smoke.
Yet there was no time to acknowledge the pain—she shook the door with frantic violence.
“Save me! Please! I’m begging you! Ahhhhhhhhh!”
‘What is this?’
A discordant note jarred my awareness.
Anyone in such circumstances would fight to survive.
But Kim Soon-hee seemed driven by something more—another reason to live, something deeper.
Then another image flooded Kang Hyung-seok’s mind.
A shabby lodging—somewhere between a boarding house and a cheap inn.
Kim Soon-hee lay sprawled across the bed like a discarded rag, her voice hoarse.
“Boss, I’m pregnant.”
Her gaze fixed on the man sitting on the edge of the mattress, smoking.
The age gap between them was so vast they might have passed for father and daughter.
“I’m pregnant. It’s your child, boss.”
“What?”
Kim Soon-hee flinched at the Factory Owner’s stare.
The blanket slipped away, revealing her body marked with vivid scars and bruises.
“What did you just say, you filthy thing?”
“I-it’s your child, boss.”
“You spread your legs for god knows who and claim it’s mine? You worthless whore.”
The Factory Owner stubbed out his cigarette with agitation, then seized the ashtray. He brought it down mercilessly against Kim Soon-hee’s forearms and chest, his voice demonic.
“You bitch! I gave you a little kindness and now you’re trying to trap me? You pathetic whore!”
Thud! Crack! Thud! Crack!
“Agh! Ahhh! No!”
“Whose child is it? Tell me! Whose?”
Kim Soon-hee clung to the Factory Owner’s ankles with a degraded expression.
“P-please save me. Please save me.”
“Disgusting creature….”
The Factory Owner’s eyes fixed on Kim Soon-hee’s belly as he raised his fist.
At that, Kim Soon-hee clutched her belly in panic and glared at the Factory Owner with fierce eyes.
For a moment, the Factory Owner’s emotions surged and he raised the ashtray, but instead of bringing it down, he muttered quietly.
“Damn it… Ugh!”
The Factory Owner looked at Kim Soon-hee as though she were something filthy, then left the room.
Left alone, Kim Soon-hee hugged her belly and trembled.
That day, she had cried so much.
‘So that’s how it was.’
More information began flooding into Kang Hyung-seok’s mind.
So I learned the truth.
A relationship forced upon her through coercion.
Threats to expose her to her family.
Wages withheld, leaving her pulling at her hair at home, while at the Factory she endured the whispers of others.
Report it?
She had tried.
But this was the late twentieth century, when awareness of human rights was far different from now.
Even the police had treated Kim Soon-hee as though she were filthy, forcing her to flee the station.
My heart clenched.
As I empathized deeply with what had happened to her, the vision shifted back to the Warehouse.
Whoooosh!
Engulfed in flames that twisted her skin, Kim Soon-hee hugged her belly and pounded on the door.
“Help! Someone help me!”
It was then.
“B-Boss! There’s someone inside…!”
“Shut up and hold it! She can’t get out!”
Two voices came from outside.
Kim Soon-hee’s hands froze, and at the words that followed, I felt rage ignite within me.
“Ma Deputy Manager! Press harder! She’s still alive!”
“Boss, this doesn’t seem right!”
“Ma Deputy Manager! You idiot! You know the Factory’s in trouble. Since it’s going under anyway, we need that fire insurance payout to cover severance. You understand that, don’t you?”
“B-But this… this isn’t something a person should do. There’s someone inside…!”
“One dead body won’t look any worse!”
The Factory Owner’s voice, crueler than the flames themselves, shattered Kim Soon-hee’s heart.
“She tried to steal and accidentally started the fire! The Factory burned down because of her! Damn it, if we handle it that way, everything’s clean! What’s so hard about that! Ma Deputy Manager, you bastard!”
Madness rang in the Factory Owner’s voice.
Kim Soon-hee had to die.
And if possible, it should profit them.
He truly seemed to believe this.
I shifted my gaze from the door to Kim Soon-hee.
“Boss! Boss, please!”
Kim Soon-hee must have felt the same rage I did, yet she called out to the Factory Owner with a pitiful voice.
“Please! Save me!”
“Press down! Harder! She’s not dead yet!”
“Ughhhh, ugggghhhhh!”
“Ma Deputy Manager! Get a grip! You bastard!”
I felt my breath constricting.
Was this something a human being should do?
At that moment, the image I perceived expanded further, allowing me to see Ma Deputy Manager and the Factory Owner outside the door.
Ma Deputy Manager, gripped by terror, was pressing down on the door with a wooden panel.
The Factory Owner gazed up at the factory as flames billowed forth, his face twisted into a grotesque smile.
“Press! Harder! She must die! She must die! She absolutely must die!”
The Factory Owner’s expression was unmistakably one of elation.
He believed that killing Kim Soon-hee would solve everything.
With the factory’s flames dancing across his inhuman grin, he looked like a demon itself.
“Aaaaaaahhhhh!”
Kim Soon-hee’s anguished scream tore through the air, and I turned my gaze back to her.
Her endless despair felt like my own.
In Kim Soon-hee’s heart, who had been tormented until the very end and robbed of her life, resentment was born.
‘So that’s why. That’s why you became a Vengeful Spirit.’
I felt a sorrow that tore at my chest.
Engulfed in flames, Kim Soon-hee collapsed, and I shifted my gaze to her hands, nails extended like hooks.
Watching her pour out the desire to tear the Factory Owner to shreds onto herself, I felt an emotion that made breathing difficult.
And when Kim Soon-hee stopped moving, the image ended.
It was cold.
It was dark.
The surroundings, returned to the original Warehouse, were even quiet.
I stared at Kim Soon-hee with tears welling in my eyes, and she, eyeless, gazed at me through hollow voids.
-I.
Kim Soon-hee’s voice came out hoarse.
-I hate everything.
“…It’s not your fault.”
-I hate people.
Everyone turned away from her in her suffering and pointed fingers at her.
“It’s not because you’re inadequate.”
-What do you know? What could you possibly know!
I reached out my hand.
I wrapped my arms around her shoulders, charred and blackened by fire, twisted and contorted, and held her tightly. Unlike when I held the Spitz Victim Spirit, there was no tactile sensation in my hands, yet I did not let go.
“I understand you.”
I spoke with sincerity.
It was an act absent from Shamanism, yet my intention to console the spirit aligned with its purpose.
“Those who commit sins receive heavy punishment through karmic consequence. Even if you are not the victim, heaven will deliver that punishment.”
All sins lead to punishment.
Those who drove nails through others’ hearts with their words.
Those who harmed others with their hands.
Those who sought to wound another’s feelings.
The betrayers, the thieves, those who took lives.
All receive heaven’s retribution.
That punishment follows no law made by man.
And so, though divine punishment seems not to exist, it inevitably manifests in cruel moments.
When one sees their children, starts a business, changes jobs—or the punishment descends upon their descendants.
“Release your attachments. Do not accumulate more sin. Seek salvation and be rewarded in the next life for the suffering you endured in this one.”
Do not regard your pain as meaningless.
For every moment and action of yours held meaning.
The consequences will surely follow.
Though your suffering is unbearable now, spring will come after winter—and so too will your reward.
It is not only punishment that is inevitable.
Reward too is inevitable.
Kang Hyung-seok pressed his sincerity into every word, speaking to Kim Soon-hee, who remained perfectly still.
“I will open your path forward.”
Kang Hyung-seok held that posture for a long time.
Then he felt Kim Soon-hee’s hand rising against his back.
The touch of a Victim Spirit—something that should not be felt.
Yet Kang Hyung-seok clearly felt Kim Soon-hee’s hand squeezing his back and sensed her nodding.
A choked sob—a cry of anguish.
She too must have been lonely and in pain.
What Kim Soon-hee needed most was someone who would acknowledge her.
Having failed to meet such a person in life, Kim Soon-hee wept like a child now that she had found them in death.
A flutter!
Kang Hyung-seok stepped back and swung the hemp cloth wide.
“Go now, Seol-ah. Go now, Seol-ah. Release your resentment and go, Seol-ah.”
The resentment bound in the hemp represents han—the accumulated sorrow of the soul.
And to release that resentment requires both the shaman’s sincerity and the Victim Spirit’s will to seek salvation.
“Accept this offering of devotion, and on this day release all the unfulfilled han of this world, that through the merit of your filial descendants you may receive deliverance and liberation.”
Thus Kang Hyung-seok swung the hemp cloth with his whole heart and soul, praying for Kim Soon-hee’s resentment to dissolve.
“Spirit who departed in the bloom of youth, release the resentment of that lost spring and go.”
A soft snap.
The knot closest to her wrist came undone.
Kim Soon-hee’s first resentment had been released.
“Spirit who left parents behind, release the resentment of filial impiety and go.”
Another soft snap.
The second knot came undone in turn.
“Release the lingering affection between siblings, dear spirit, and depart in peace.”
I continued to wave the hemp cloth broadly as I proceeded with the guiding ritual.
The guiding ritual was an act of guidance.
It meant leading a Victim Spirit bound to the earthly realm by attachment toward the heavens.
I carved the path, and Kim Soon-hee walked it. Thus, the guiding ritual was an act of Shamanism that could only succeed through communion between the Shaman and the Victim Spirit.
“Release the sorrow of a life cut short, dear spirit, and depart in peace.”
No complications arose during this process.
Remarkably, each time I waved the hemp cloth, it unraveled as though someone had been waiting for permission to let it go.
Perhaps Kim Soon-hee had been waiting all this time for someone like me to appear.
“Release the resentment of a violent death and premature passing, dear spirit, and depart in peace.”
To answer that longing, I devoted myself entirely to the guiding ritual.
With each strand of hemp that unraveled, the energy pressing down upon the warehouse grew increasingly faint.
Simultaneously, even the ghost’s presence became hazy.
‘Go in peace. Without a single trace of attachment or resentment remaining.’
I will release every last bit of your suffering.
Swish.
Once all the hemp had unraveled, I grasped the Shaman’s Bell with my eyes still closed.
Clang clang clang clang!
“As you ascend to the Pure Land, we offer ritual sustenance and receive guidance from the Eight Bodhisattvas. May you board the Prajna Vessel high above, cross the great ocean of birth and death with the recitation of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, and arrive at the Pure Land in peace.”
May every path you take be filled with tranquility.
Once I had completed the entire guiding ritual, I slowly opened my eyes.
Then I lowered my hand holding the Shaman’s Bell and let the hemp cloth with all its strands now unraveled drape down.
Within the dim warehouse, I sensed no other presence.
***
Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom!
The Dharma Master, who had been striking the drum rapidly, stopped his drumsticks.
Chung-geum, who had been performing the ritual to suppress the malevolent force, had stopped moving her hands.
“Haah, haah.”
Chung-geum released the breath she had been holding and shook her head while looking at the Dharma Master.
The Dharma Master, his face showing confusion, set down his drumsticks to the side as he looked at her, and Chung-geum likewise put away the colorful flags she had been holding.
“Do you need to rest?”
At the Dharma Master’s question, Chung-geum shook her head, her face glistening with sweat.
“No. It’s all finished.”
The malevolent force that needed suppressing had vanished.
The Vengeful Spirit’s resentment had been released.

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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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