An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 354

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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 354
Part 7. I Have Called Upon You (1)
Ting.
The bell’s chime continued.
Kang Hyung-seok remained with his eyes closed, maintaining his posture of prayer, while the sound of approaching footsteps grew clearer from somewhere far away.
The footsteps were accompanied by a creaking sound.
The sound of armor.
The sound of ornaments hanging from a sword sheath swaying.
It was the sound of the Guardian Spirit approaching Kang Hyung-seok, his vessel and disciple.
At the same time, a powerful vertigo surged through me.
It was a sensation of the world flipping upside down, and when the dizziness subsided, I felt something hard beneath my feet.
Kang Hyung-seok opened his eyes.
“Mighty General.”
The Guardian Spirit stood before me.
Clad in black armor, a great general’s sword hung at his waist.
Black shimmer-like wisps coiled around him, obscuring his face, but such things held no meaning for me anymore.
“This humble disciple makes a request.”
I bowed my head to the Guardian Spirit and continued in a reverent voice.
“Guide me. Tell me what I shall face, and what is bringing chaos to this land.”
The moment my voice ceased.
Boom.
A sound like a great drum echoed.
As I lifted my head, my surroundings had transformed into a dark forest.
My Guardian Spirit still stood there.
And he conveyed to me not through words, but through vision.
Whoosh!
Birds erupted from the forest in numbers vast enough to blot out the sky.
My face hardened as I gazed up at the countless birds.
It was not only birds.
They were people.
In the dark night sky, people floated like dim stars.
They were writhing.
As if someone had stripped them of ownership of their bodies, or as if they were overwhelmed by an uncontrollable ecstasy, unable to control themselves.
“…Is this what I must face?”
I turned my head to look at the Guardian Spirit.
But my Guardian Spirit had vanished from sight.
Instead, a dark corridor appeared.
That deep, pitch-black hole, like the throat of a colossal beast, pulled at me like a black hole.
Step.
I moved my feet toward the corridor.
A familiar scent brushed past my nostrils.
The smell of coal.
Thud, thud.
I continued walking through the pitch-black corridor, devoid of even a sliver of light.
Then, at some point, I stopped and raised my arm.
My body wouldn’t obey me, as though I were trapped in a dream.
Scrape, scrape.
It was an alien sensation that halted my hand as it scraped against the wall.
I exhaled a breath that frosted white in the air and carefully rubbed the wall’s surface.
And soon I understood what had stopped my hand.
A face.
Was the blackened skin its natural state, or was it covered in soot?
I stood rigid, bracing myself against the acrid stench and malevolent aura emanating from it.
Twitch.
The face embedded in the wall convulsed.
And as it opened its eyes, brilliant firelight suddenly flooded the surroundings.
Fire.
Massive, searing flames—like those that heated the cauldrons of the Inferno of Boiling Water—engulfed everything around me.
The face wreathed in fire glared directly at me.
And the moment its mouth opened, everything vanished, and I found myself back in the dark room.
It felt like I had endured a terrible nightmare.
Whoosh.
With wide eyes fixed on the dark ceiling, I pushed myself upright.
Then I rubbed my face, and immediately pressed my lips together as I wiped them.
My heart pounded, and my clothes clung to me, damp with sweat.
“Hah…”
I clenched my jaw, my eyes heavy with troubled thoughts.
With so much weighing on my mind, I doubted I would fall asleep easily tonight.
***
Wednesday arrived.
As the sun was just beginning to rise, I stood in front of my house with a backpack slung over my shoulder.
Whirrrrr.
A moment later, a sound like a spacecraft echoed from the alley entrance, and soon a luxurious SUV with a gleaming exterior pulled up.
The tinting wasn’t dark enough to obscure the driver’s identity.
Zzzzzt.
The passenger window of the car that stopped in front of me rolled down, and Shin Yoseph, wearing sunglasses, nodded as if to say get in.
Thunk.
“You changed cars again?”
“Tax season’s coming up anyway. Since I’m paying taxes regardless, I might as well get a new car to make it feel less wasteful.”
I wondered how much in taxes Shin Yoseph would owe.
Probably more than my annual salary, which is why he could afford to buy a car like this.
With that thought, I fastened my seatbelt, and Shin Yoseph manipulated the large tablet-like display mounted on the vehicle to set our destination.
Southern Gangwon Province, Yeongwol.
“I talked to your department head yesterday.”
“I heard. He told me to have a safe trip.”
“Did something good happen? His voice sounded really bright.”
“Something like that. It seems he’s thinking about going on a business trip.”
I didn’t go into detail about Daejeong Materials’ internal affairs.
I only mentioned that I’d introduced a Shaman I knew to one of our trading partners, it was a situation that would interest the executives, and that’s why Gwak Young-ho was planning to keep me away from the office for a while.
“Your identity as a Shaman can’t be revealed at the company.”
“I’m working hard to keep it hidden.”
Just imagining it was horrifying.
At first, they’d react with surprise, and over time their wariness would fade.
Then wouldn’t I end up being called to all sorts of gatherings?
Read my fortune, perform a ritual for the company’s success, write talismans for relatives who want to do something, tell me my year-ahead fortune, and so on.
I could only imagine an exhaustingly busy situation.
“Poor bastard.”
Shin Yoseph spoke with genuine sympathy, and I twisted my lips into a displeased expression.
We both had similar fates.
“If it gets out about me, it won’t have as big an impact as it would for you.”
“Why?”
“Because I can just cut ties with them.”
I started to say something but had nothing to say, so I just closed my mouth.
The silence continued until we entered the highway, and Shin Yoseph was the first to speak.
“I’ve arranged for a local contact.”
“A local contact?”
Shin Yoseph nodded while activating the cruise control function.
Modern vehicles really are different these days.
Even when Shin Yoseph briefly took his hands off the steering wheel to pull out a cigarette, the car maintained its lane automatically.
Pop! Whoosh.
Shin Yoseph lit a cigarette with an expensive lighter, his eyes carrying the worried gaze of a fresh-faced newcomer to society as he opened his mouth.
“The land is vast. I’ll need to venture into the forest too. I can’t just go in blind.”
That must have been why.
He’d purchased such a vehicle.
The electric car, which emitted no engine noise, felt like it could tear across any rough terrain without hesitation, going anywhere at all.
“When he was younger, he worked as a mountain keeper, and these days he occasionally makes his living as an Herb Gatherer, I hear.”
“That’s fortunate, at least.”
“But what’s bothering you?”
One of Kang Hyung-seok’s eyes narrowed slightly, and Shin Yoseph exhaled smoke through the partially open driver’s side window.
“Phew! Is something wrong? Your expression says otherwise.”
“It’s nothing major.”
“Nothing major? It’s written all over your face. Tell me. What is it?”
Kang Hyung-seok released a deep sigh that swelled his chest.
Then he fell silent for a moment, and looking beyond the passenger window rather than at Shin Yoseph, he spoke.
“I received a revelation.”
“A revelation?”
Something bestowed by the divine upon humanity.
That’s why Shin Yoseph had no choice but to receive it with sensitivity.
“People emerging from the forest, a face inside a cave.”
“It was a person?”
“If it were human, would it be inside a cave?”
Shin Yoseph pressed his lower lip against his upper teeth, then clicked his tongue softly.
“Damn, so it really is a Demon.”
“I don’t know. It could be a spirit, or something worse.”
“Should Shin Manager have come along too?”
“No.”
Kang Hyung-seok answered as if striking down with a blade.
“That’s not happening.”
Call it intuition if you will.
Shin Jung-ah must not become involved in this matter.
She’s already someone who’s easily influenced, and the distinction between areas where she can help and those where she cannot is far too clear.
“If something wicked gets inside Manager’s body, there’s no saving her.”
The image of Shin Jung-ah, entranced by whether it was a Demon or something even worse, splitting open her own belly with a blade flashed through his mind.
The sight of an acquaintance laughing with lips stretched to her ears, being slaughtered by something vile—even imagining it brought excruciating pain.
“Understood.”
Shin Yoseph closed his mouth as if he would ask no further questions.
And the two of them raced toward Yeongwol in Gangwon Province.
Whiiiiiine.
Arriving at Yeongwol after eating at a rest stop along the way, the city appeared somehow cozy.
Yet the city sprawling before us was not our destination.
Shin Yoseph turned the wheel in the opposite direction of the city, following the navigation system’s guidance, while I tracked the gradually shifting landscape with my eyes.
The sun had now fully risen.
But the gray sky remained overcast, seeming to perfectly mirror the weight in our hearts.
The vehicle continued deeper and deeper into the wilderness.
Whirrrr.
And when it stopped, we were surrounded by mountains on all sides.
What caught my eye was a single, extremely dilapidated old house.
Click.
“Let’s get out.”
Shin Yoseph exited the car first, and I followed behind him, grabbing my bag.
This was certainly someone who lived as an Herb Gatherer.
It was a traditional rural house, with wicker baskets placed in front, and medicinal herbs drying in the distance—their distinctive aroma drifting even from afar.
Crunch.
Just as Shin Yoseph stepped forward toward the house.
Clang.
Suddenly, the Shaman’s Bell rang out.
My footsteps stopped, and Shin Yoseph turned back with a puzzled expression, as the Shaman’s Bell chimed once more.
Clang, clang, clang.
The faint, vibrating chime from the bell inside my bag felt familiar.
This had happened before.
In the past, when I faced the Vengeful Spirit.
“Why?”
“Get back.”
I pushed Shin Yoseph aside and pulled down the sleeve of my outer jacket, then grasped the door handle without leaving fingerprints.
And I twisted the door open.
The air that poured out was bitterly cold.
“…Damn it.”
My eyes, murmuring softly, fixed on the wall.
And Shin Yoseph’s face behind me also turned cold as he stared at the same spot.
A corpse.
As if mocking the exorcist priest Shin Yoseph, a cross was drawn on the wall around an old man nailed to it with both arms spread wide.
A belt fixed with nails to the wall held his waist so he wouldn’t collapse, and on his head was a crown twisted from wire.
On the floor lay an electric drill with dried blood caked on it.
“Haaah, whooo, haaah, whoooo.”
Shin Yoseph’s breathing grew increasingly ragged behind me.
“…Shin Yoseph, when was the last time you contacted him?”
“Yesterday.”
As I swallowed, I tasted blood in my mouth for some reason.
The skin discoloration and stench suggested he’d been dead for at least three or four days, so who exactly had Shin Yoseph been speaking with?
Kang Hyung-seok clenched his teeth and stared at the corpse with fierce intensity.
Unfortunately, the dead body offered no answers.

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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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