An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 45

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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 44
Part 7. Beast’s Fur (1)
Glug, glug, glug.
Kang Hyung-seok disposed of the alcohol in a remote mountain far from the rental house.
I confirmed multiple times that it was unclaimed wasteland, and scattered glutinous rice flour around the area to prevent any backlash.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Then I filled in the pit where I’d disposed of the alcohol thickly.
“Do we really have to go this far?”
Kang Doo-seok, who had helped with everything, complained, and I smiled bitterly.
“This isn’t normal alcohol.”
“Well, anyone can see that…”
“It seemed to be a form of curse.”
It was an unfamiliar term to Kang Doo-seok.
In front of my Uncle sitting in the passenger seat, who gave me a puzzled look, I continued the conversation with Kang Doo-seok.
“It’s dangerous. If someone had drunk it, it wouldn’t have ended at just a hospital visit.”
“Where did you get something like that from, brother-in-law?”
It was probably because Kang Doo-seok’s gaze had turned toward the car.
My Uncle opened the passenger door and jumped out, and in that moment, Kang Doo-seok’s gaze shifted to me.
Are you okay?
That was the look, but the process of disposing of the alcohol was already finished.
Since it didn’t matter that my Uncle, the intended target of the curse, had come out, I silently shook my head.
“Why is this taking so long?”
“It’s complicated, like Hyung-seok said.”
“You could just pour it down the toilet roughly.”
My Uncle doesn’t know much about Shamanism.
He has no interest in it either, and considers all such things mere superstition.
That’s not necessarily wrong.
I actually think living that way is the best approach.
But if I hadn’t been there, my Uncle would have suffered harm.
“Uncle, who did you say gave you this alcohol?”
“Someone I work with. He’s not a bad person. He probably didn’t even know the alcohol had gone bad.”
My Uncle, who could have suffered terribly, continued to defend the person who gave him the alcohol.
“Brother-in-law! Anyone can see he gave it to you with ill intent.”
“He’s not that kind of person.”
My Uncle looked at the now-empty bottle with a melancholic expression, then picked up his phone.
He then quickly scrolled through his contacts and showed them to everyone.
“I’ll give him a call. If you listen to what he says, hyung, you’ll understand, won’t you?”
Then he immediately pressed the call button.
My Uncle must have thought the call would connect right away.
He probably expected an awkward and embarrassed apology to come through, followed by promises to serve proper alcohol next time.
(The number you have dialed is not in service. Please check the number and try again.)
But that didn’t happen.
“…What?”
Uncle pressed the call button again, bewildered.
Yet the same automated message played once more.
“Brother-in-law, it seems like he planned this from the start.”
“Wait, just a moment, hyung. This doesn’t make sense.”
Uncle, greatly flustered, redirected the call to someone else.
“Hello? Yes, section chief. Well, you see. It’s about Gwang-il, the carpenter. I think I saved the number wrong—could you send me his contact information?”
He called the newly obtained number, but this time the call wouldn’t connect either.
Uncle stared down at his phone as if possessed by a ghost, the line dead.
“No, he’s not the type to do this….”
“Brother-in-law.”
“No, hyung. He’s really not the kind of person to disappear like this. Did something happen? Why is he doing this?”
Uncle’s eyes, scratching his head in confusion, had changed considerably from before.
Was he truly trying to harm me?
That suspicion trampled down the confidence that had gleamed in his pupils.
“Uncle.”
“Hm…?”
Kang Hyung-seok, who had been watching him, pressed his lips together before speaking carefully.
“How many people received the liquor?”
Kang Doo-seok’s face lit up with realization, and Uncle’s pupils visibly trembled.
That’s how liquor is.
There’s no law saying you must make only one bottle at a time.
There’s no law saying you must give it to only one person.
“If that person had ill intentions, he probably wouldn’t have given it only to you, Uncle. Were there others who received the liquor?”
Uncle, receiving the gazes of Kang Doo-seok and Kang Hyung-seok, rubbed his lips.
Deep wrinkles between his furrowed brows seemed to hold much deliberation.
“There are a few….”
“Call them.”
As Kang Hyung-seok spoke decisively, Uncle fumbled with his phone.
He sighed, muttered a silent curse, and found a name in his call history, dialing it.
Ring, ring.
Uncle’s anxiety grew with each prolonged dial tone.
(The call cannot be connected. Please leave a message after the tone.)
“Damn it! Really.”
Ring, ring.
Three consecutive calls.
Each to a different person.
(The call cannot be connected…)
None of them could be reached by phone.
Realizing the situation had become thoroughly tangled, Uncle rubbed his forehead as if wringing it out.
Things were spiraling toward the worst possible outcome.
***
Whoooosh!
Kang Hyung-seok, now on the expressway, kept his lips pressed firmly together.
It was 10 PM, and a low mist clung to the road.
The oppressive atmosphere only amplified the sense of dread.
‘Why on earth?’
What possessed someone to distribute such alcohol?
This was someone who had deliberately set out to harm Uncle.
And they’d gone so far as to distribute the tainted drink to others as well.
Ring, ring, ring.
(The call won’t connect…)
Click!
Kang Doo-seok spoke quietly to Uncle, who had irritably hung up the phone.
“Don’t overthink it. What could have happened? They might’ve just passed out from drinking.”
“All three of them? That doesn’t make sense.”
Kang Doo-seok fell silent and turned his gaze out the window instead.
“Hyung-seok! How much longer until we arrive?”
“About five minutes.”
“Phew! Sorry about this. On your day off too.”
Kang Hyung-seok said nothing, sucking in his lips before tapping the steering wheel with his thumb.
Four bottles of alcohol, three people with no contact.
‘No, wait. The person who distributed it is also unreachable.’
That’s what made it dangerous.
The first thing that came to mind was curse-sharing.
It was similar to when that damned Noh Su-chul scattered coins on the street years ago.
But this was clearly a far more malicious act.
“Damn it, what kind of alcohol was it?”
Kang Doo-seok muttered like a sigh, and Kang Hyung-seok’s thoughts aligned with his.
“We’ll know when we see.”
Kang Hyung-seok spoke in a low murmur, then shifted his gaze to the navigation display.
It showed only three minutes remaining until arrival.
Creak, creak!
The moment the car stopped at the destination, Kang Doo-seok and Uncle yanked open the doors as if they’d been waiting.
“Hyung-seok! Over here!”
Kang Doo-seok confirmed Kang Hyung-seok getting out of the car, then immediately followed Uncle.
In this situation, my son Kang Hyung-seok would be the most helpful.
I hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but if a Shaman were needed, there was nothing Kang Doo-seok or Uncle could do.
Click!
A container housing used as temporary lodging.
After confirming the lock was secured from inside, my Uncle struck the door violently with his fist.
“Kim! Kim! Open the door, would you!”
Thud, thud, thud, thud!
“I said open the door!”
Like an unanswered phone call, no response came from within.
“Brother-in-law, check the meter first! Is it running?”
“Yes, yes!”
“Damn it, someone’s in there.”
“Kim! Can’t you hear me? Hello?”
Thud, thud, thud!
It must have been because we’d confirmed someone was inside.
My Uncle pounded on the door harder than before, while Kang Doo-seok glanced around nervously.
Then he spotted a window, and Kang Hyung-seok was looking at the same place.
Crash!
Without hesitation, Kang Hyung-seok hurled a large stone through the glass and reached in to unlock it.
Then I vaulted over the window frame to get to the door.
Clang, clang, clang!
It was then that the Shaman’s Bell in my pocket began to ring.
Inside the dim container building.
As an ominous chill crawled up my spine, my Uncle’s urgent voice pierced my eardrums.
“Hyung-seok! Open the door first, quickly!”
Right. That comes first.
Thud, thud, thud!
I approached the door being pounded on and unlocked it. At the same moment, my Uncle stepped inside and flipped the switch beside the door.
Click!
The interior of the container lit up.
Yellowed flooring, the stench of sweat and feet and stale tobacco smoke clinging to the air, night air seeping through the broken window.
And liquor bottles and empty cups.
A man collapsed on the ground.
“Kim!”
My Uncle rushed over and helped the man called Kim to his feet.
White foam at his mouth, his eyes devoid of focus.
“Kim, Kim! Come to your senses. What’s wrong with this man! Snap out of it!”
My Uncle shook him, but he responded like a corpse being jostled.
“Hey, Hyung-seok! Call 119! Brother! Help me move this man!”
“Y-yes!”
It was the moment Kang Doo-seok grabbed Kim’s ankle.
Kim, who had been motionless until then, suddenly arched his back violently and opened his mouth wide.
And from his mouth came a sound that should never have emerged.
“Waaaaah! Wah-wah-wah-wah-wah!”
The sound of a baby crying.
Not an imitation, but a genuinely high and piercing wail like that of a newborn—so loud it made the container housing resonate.
Kang Doo-seok and his Uncle, their skin crawling, stood frozen as they stared down at Kim.
“Wah-wah-wah! Wah-wah-wah-wah-wah!”
Blood pooled in Kim’s whites of his eyes like red ink spreading through water.
Drip, drip, drip.
Crimson blood poured from his nose, streaming down his cheekbones, while more blood seeped from his mouth, staining the white foam at his lips a deep red.
“Wah-wah-wah-wah-wah!”
Even as he continued to wail like an infant, shaking his body violently, his Uncle released his grip and collapsed to the ground.
Thud!
Kim fell headfirst, his arms folding across his chest.
The posture was so infantile that both his Uncle and Kang Doo-seok instinctively recognized this was far beyond anything rational.
And just as Kim’s lips began to twitch and contort grotesquely,
Ching-ching-ching-ching!
Kang Hyung-seok, who had been silently observing Kim, pulled out the Shaman’s Bell and shook it.
At the same moment, both his Uncle and Kang Doo-seok’s gazes snapped toward him.
Ching-ching! Ching-ching! Ching-ching-ching!
Kang Hyung-seok shook the Shaman’s Bell while keeping his eyes fixed solely on Kim, advancing with deliberate strides.
He then covered Kim’s face with his palm, shaking the Shaman’s Bell in rapid motions as he swept it upward from the belly to the chest to the throat.
“Heaven and earth are clear and bright; heaven and earth are in order. Yin and yang are balanced. Sun, moon, and stars are pure. All impurities depart. White tiger above, red phoenix below. All impurities depart. Spring, summer, autumn, winter—all seasons are pure. Night and day are pure. Mountain is pure. Four directions are pure.”
His Uncle did not believe in Shamanism.
Kang Doo-seok was not someone close to Shamanism either.
Having only known that Kang Hyung-seok had received a calling, they found him strange and alien as he shook the Shaman’s Bell and recited the purification chant.
Ching-ching! Ching-ching! Ching-ching!
“All human comings and goings are pure. Three directions and eight paths are pure. External colors and inner colors—all eight directions are pure. The dead and the living, all spirits and ghosts are pure. The five directions and five deities are pure. East, west, north, south, and center are pure. All impurities of the eastern direction depart.”
Yet neither of them dared to stop him or speak, for Kang Hyung-seok’s momentum was formidable.
And Kim, who had been coughing up bloody foam and wailing like an infant mere moments ago, was gradually becoming docile.
Drip, drip, drip.
Bloody foam oozed between Kang Hyung-seok’s fingers and dripped to the floor.
“All wandering spirits and malevolent forces are pure. All curses and hexes are pure. The heavens are pure. From the age of three to eighty-three, all ages are pure. From year to month to day to hour, all times are pure. All karmic debts and causes are pure.”
Kang Hyung-seok, reciting the purification chant with increasing speed, raised the Shaman’s Bell above his head and shook it down with force.
Ching-ching-ching-ching!
“Wandering spirit, depart beyond the original gate, ten thousand miles away, and never return!”
At that very moment, Kim’s body convulsed violently.
Then, as Kim went limp and became still, Kang Hyung-seok lifted his hand away from his face.
The container housing was filled with an air so silent and heavy that even breathing seemed impossible.
In that suffocating space, Kang Hyung-seok looked at his palm, furrowed the space between his brows, and exhaled sharply through it.
Beast fur.
What had spilled from Kim’s mouth clung to Kang Hyung-seok’s palm, drenched in blood.

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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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