An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 361

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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 361
Part 2. You Cannot Subdue Us (1)
Vrroooom.
Inside the car speeding unobstructed down the highway, Shin Yoseph unwrapped his second hamburger.
The hotel breakfast service had long since ended, and there was no time to sit leisurely in a restaurant.
“But seriously, was there nothing else?”
“You know how it is. Just eat whatever.”
“Of all things, really.”
Shin Yoseph crumpled the wrapper with its demon illustration and shoved the hamburger into his mouth, his brow furrowed.
Kang Hyung-seok also bit into his hamburger, but truthfully, he couldn’t taste it properly.
This was no time for such things.
The possibility of a Possessed Person or Deceased Son erupting at any moment made my heart race and my back tense.
Ding!
Shin Yoseph suddenly checked his ringing phone and handed it to Kang Hyung-seok, who opened his mouth as he looked at the screen.
“He sent the investigation file?”
“Check it for me. It should open if you just tap it.”
Kang Hyung-seok touched the screen to open the attachment and shifted his gaze to the vehicle display.
“This is the right place.”
It was an email sent by Shin’s Aide.
More locations were marked than what Yoon Sang had investigated, but there were no other sites near the destination.
Perhaps it was because of the cross-verification.
The anxiety that had gripped my chest until moments ago dissolved, and I could even taste the sauce in my mouth as composure returned.
Vrroooom.
Shin Yoseph, nodding his head, likely felt the same way.
“Phew—!”
An abandoned mine, a city abandoned by people.
A highway cracked from poor maintenance.
A gray sky that could pour rain at any moment.
Yet even in broad daylight, the sensation of heading toward something sinister remained vivid.
“…I’ve been thinking about it all night.”
Kang Hyung-seok shifted his gaze to Shin Yoseph.
Pop! Flick.
Shin Yoseph lit a cigarette and opened the window before speaking.
“What kind of demon it might be.”
Nothing was as important as revealing the demon’s name during an exorcism ritual.
So Shin Yoseph had lost sleep, pondering and re-pondering the demon’s identity.
“Abnas, Oriax, Alloces, Shax. Perhaps Raum.”
All unfamiliar names, so Kang Hyung-seok narrowed one eye, and Shin Yoseph exhaled a long stream of cigarette smoke before speaking.
“Except for Raum, they’re all related to honor.”
“Honor? What kind of honor?”
“It was a place that was falling apart. What those in decline yearn for most is usually something like that.”
Past glory, honor.
The demon Shin Yoseph deduced was connected to those things.
“What about Raum?”
Kang Hyung-seok asked, and Shin Yoseph took two drags from his cigarette in silence before speaking.
“Treasure, the city’s decline, foresight.”
Kang Hyung-seok looked at Shin Yoseph, then shifted his gaze through the passenger window.
“Then we’re too late.”
The moment I heard those three words, practical reasons like compensation came to mind.
But the coal industry’s collapse had already passed its prosperous era.
Too late.
Far too late.
“It’s been thirty years, so what.”
Shin Yoseph spoke matter-of-factly and stubbed out his shortened cigarette into an empty cola bottle.
“Nothing changes. We find it and drive it out. That’s all.”
Kang Hyung-seok nodded while watching the scenery flow past through the passenger window.
A half-eaten hamburger was shoved into a cup holder from lost appetite, and the smoke from Shin Yoseph’s cigarette drifted subtly through the vehicle’s interior.
Even as this happened, the car continued rushing toward its destination.
As the remaining distance shortened, the air felt heavier, and both Kang Hyung-seok and Shin Yoseph’s faces grew rigid like withered wood.
Zzzing.
Shin Yoseph’s phone rang.
Kang Hyung-seok caught Shin Yoseph’s glance asking him to take the call, pressed the answer button, and switched it to speaker mode. Soon an unfamiliar man’s voice filled the vehicle.
(Hello? Director Shin?)
“Ah, yes. Hello.”
(It’s nothing special, but I received a call. It seems to be your introduction—would it be alright if I took the case?)
“Ah, did the call come through?”
(Yes. I’m not sure what this is about this time, but it seems quite serious.)
Since it was on speaker mode, Kang Hyung-seok could hear the conversation too.
Still, Shin Yoseph seemed unbothered.
There was no discomfort in his demeanor, and his tone remained unchanged, but the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.
“Please look after them. I’ll handle the medical costs later.”
(Yes, yes. I’ll mention it to the Director as well. There’s nothing urgent, so when you visit later, we can discuss it then.)
“Yes. Thank you.”
Click.
Shin Yoseph reached over and ended the call himself.
“Was that the Possessed Person from before?”
“Yeah. I introduced them to a doctor I know, and it looks like they contacted them.”
“That’s fortunate.”
Shin Yoseph let out a small sound of agreement like a sigh.
There wasn’t much distance left to the destination now.
Yet even that brief phone call seemed to have given Shin Yoseph some reassurance, for he drove on with a more serene expression than before.
Thump-thump! Thud-thud-thud!
The SUV veered off the road and began traversing a mountain path.
An abandoned mine, closed long ago.
Thump-thump! Bang! Thud-thud!
There may have once been a path here, but it registered on no navigation system, so the vehicle had to forge ahead through unmarked terrain, crushing stones, branches, and nameless weeds beneath its wheels.
Thank goodness it was an SUV.
Kang Hyung-seok genuinely thought so, turning his gaze toward the increasingly dense forest surrounding them.
Whoosh!
Mountain creatures, startled by the intrusive vehicle, scattered or fled, and the car’s speed gradually diminished.
The trees were so densely packed that accelerating further became impossible.
Whirrrrr.
When the vehicle could go no further, Shin Yoseph had no choice but to stop.
“We’ll have to walk from here.”
Click.
Shin Yoseph spoke in a calm voice as he unfastened his seatbelt, and Kang Hyung-seok prepared to exit the car, gathering his belongings.
Checking the display, I saw that roughly one kilometer remained to our destination.
Whoooosh.
The wind that blew swept through both men’s hair and clothing.
The wind, heavy with moisture from the rain that had fallen until dawn, pressed down upon them.
Crunch.
Shin Yoseph began walking first, and Kang Hyung-seok followed, retrieving glutinous rice from his bag.
He punctured a small hole in it and scattered it around the vehicle, then followed Shin Yoseph’s path, letting grains trickle out with each step.
Ring, ring, ring.
The sound of the Shaman’s Bell within the bag seemed to ring out like a warning.
‘I know. I understand.’
Where we are heading.
What awaits us there.
That terrible things will unfold if we fail to resolve this.
Kang Hyung-seok watched Shin Yoseph’s back as he walked ahead.
‘Protect him.’
A man acting with righteous purpose, walking alone through this damp mountain path to fulfill his calling—please, protect his back.
Kang Hyung-seok adjusted his bag and continued forward in silence.
Whoosh!
A flock of birds crossed the gray sky overhead, and when the soles of their feet grew hot against the rough, uneven dirt road, both men stopped.
Neither needed to speak first.
Before them lay what resembled a cave entrance, its plywood-sealed opening overgrown with vine-like plants.
Ssshhhhh.
As a Snake slithered through a gap in the plywood, Shin Yoseph’s dry lips trembled slightly.
Yet he said nothing and instead surveyed the surroundings.
Beneath the gray sky, the Forest appeared far darker than it actually was.
“What do you make of it?”
At Shin Yoseph’s question, Kang Hyung-seok answered with an expression much like his own.
“Malevolent.”
“Hmm.”
Shin Yoseph twisted his lips, his eyes conveying an “as expected” sentiment.
Though Shin Yoseph knew nothing of Shamanism or the Five Elements, something stirred instinctively within him.
A place where people should not exist.
A place saturated with yin energy, where even light hesitated to tread.
“Let’s go in.”
Yet both men had no choice but to venture into this most damp and darkened place.
“Stand back.”
Kang Hyung-seok pushed Shin Yoseph aside, and Shin Yoseph’s eyes betrayed his bewilderment at what he intended to do.
The answer came swiftly.
Crack! Splinter!
With a single kick, Kang Hyung-seok shattered the thick plywood.
Thud! Thud! Crack! Splinter!
Kang Hyung-seok tore away all the plywood, then cast a glance toward Shin Yoseph.
A look that said he would enter first.
A nod.
As Shin Yoseph answered silently, Kang Hyung-seok tucked a bag of glutinous rice against his side.
He then forced the small opening wider, thrust his hand inside, and scattered pristine glutinous rice around the entrance.
It was glutinous rice scattered by none other than Kang Hyung-seok himself.
Yet not a single grain passed into the Abandoned Mine, as if striking an invisible barrier, and the rice that fell nearby darkened in color in an instant.
There was definitely something in here.
Kang Hyung-seok clenched his teeth and stepped inside, lantern and Shaman’s Bell in hand.
Splash, splash.
Light recedes, darkness draws near.
The air was damp and stale, reeking of staleness.
Was it mere imagination that a sulfurous scent seemed to linger?
Scritch, scritch.
An insect larger than a grown man’s hand crawled across the wall, and the lantern of the following Shin Yoseph cast its long shadow upon the floor.
“O glorious commander of the heavenly host, Saint Michael the Archangel, protect us in our struggle against powers and violence, and shield us in our battle against the rulers of this dark world and the demons beneath the heavens.”
Listening to Shin Yoseph’s quiet prayer, Kang Hyung-seok ventured deeper.
“Come to aid those created in the image of God, whom You have redeemed at great cost from the tyranny of Satan.”
Kang Hyung-seok shook the Shaman’s Bell, breathing with utmost caution.
Ding-a-ling.
A narrow Corridor.
The bell’s sound echoed, stretching deep into the Abandoned Mine before returning.
‘The sound is strange.’
There was something mixed in like a small voice.
“The Holy Church reveres you as a guardian, and God has entrusted you with guiding the souls He has saved to the joys of heaven.”
It was not Shin Yoseph’s voice.
A voice far deeper than his.
Low like what I had heard from the Possessed Person, a vocalization as if scraping against the vocal cords.
“Therefore, Archangel Michael.”
Shin Yoseph, sensing the strangeness, lowered his prayer voice, and the moment Kang Hyung-seok shook the Shaman’s Bell again,
Pop.
Both lanterns extinguished in an instant.
In the perfect darkness that descended simultaneously, only faint breathing filled the Abandoned Mine.
And an ominous, murky voice crept toward the two men like an approaching insect.
It said it had been waiting.
That was what it said.

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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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