An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 46
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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 45
Part 7. Beast’s Fur (2)
Wee-woo, wee-woo, wee-woo, wee-woo!
The ambulance’s red lights tore through the darkness as it rushed toward us.
“Uh, honey, things seem to have gotten a bit serious. No, no. Why would Hyung-seok be in danger? My brother-in-law is fine too.”
We were in front of the container housing.
Kang Doo-seok spoke with his wife while holding his side, and my Uncle conducted a separate call with the company, gripping his phone with both hands.
I couldn’t reach the other two who had received alcohol either.
Something must have happened to them as well.
Clatter!
Watching Kim being transferred on a stretcher, I exhaled silently.
My head felt terribly cluttered.
Until now, I had managed to prevent situations from escalating.
Lee Jin-pyung had suffered the greatest damage.
Even then, I had contained it before he fell into greater danger.
So there had never been multiple casualties like this before.
“Is this your will?”
I murmured while watching Kim being loaded into the ambulance.
“Did you send me here? Or… did you hope I would come?”
I was asking the spirit that governed my body.
“Please answer. You owe me that much, don’t you?”
You’ve been silent all this time.
Surely you can give me an answer now.
Click!
The paramedic closed the door and climbed into the driver’s seat.
Then, just as when they arrived, they left in the distance with their siren wailing.
With both Kang Doo-seok and my Uncle standing far away, I felt utterly alone.
The silence was unbearable.
It was then.
“Hyung-seok.”
My Uncle, who had finished his call, approached with a face far more gaunt than when we’d met at home.
“Yes.”
“Sigh… is he going to be okay?”
My Uncle looked like someone desperately seeking reassurance.
“…Which one are you asking about?”
“You saw it yourself. I called the company and sent people over, but apparently they’re all in similar condition to Kim.”
My Uncle exhaled a trembling sigh and scratched his head in frustration.
Then he rubbed his face and pulled a cigarette from his pocket, placing it between his lips without lighting it.
“I don’t really know much about shamanism and I’m not interested in it either, but when you recite those incantations or whatever, that person seemed to become more at ease. Does that actually work? From what you’ve seen, he’s going to be fine, right?”
I turned my gaze toward my Uncle without speaking.
That look of frustration and confusion—I recognized it all too well.
Had I worn that same expression once?
Kang Hyung-seok pressed his lips together, exhaled a shallow breath, and shook his head.
“For now, it’s manageable. But we need to do something about it.”
What Kang Hyung-seok had done was akin to extinguishing an urgent fire.
Yet embers still smoldered beneath the fallen leaves—one day, they might ignite into a raging inferno.
There were two more people in similar circumstances.
And there might be others Kang Hyung-seok hadn’t yet identified, or perhaps more would emerge soon.
Click!
My Uncle broke the awkward silence with the flick of a lighter, igniting his cigarette before turning to face Kang Hyung-seok.
“…Well.”
He was about to say something.
“Son, do you have a moment?”
Kang Doo-seok called out to me, and I silently sought my Uncle’s permission with a glance before approaching him.
“Yes.”
“Could you help me with something?”
I looked at Kang Doo-seok with a questioning gaze.
“You saw that Kim fellow, didn’t you? Your Uncle nearly ended up like him, and I’d like you to lend your strength to prevent that.”
Kang Doo-seok’s eyes seemed clouded with confusion.
It had been only a few hours since he learned I’d received a spirit.
And now he was asking me for something rooted in shamanism.
“You’re the only one I can ask for this.”
I pressed my lips firmly together.
Then I looked up at my Uncle, who was smoking beneath the indifferent night sky, before turning back to meet Kang Doo-seok’s gaze.
The confusion wasn’t limited to me alone.
Yet paradoxically, watching Kang Doo-seok and my Uncle, I felt as though I somehow knew the answer.
My guardian spirit had always been this way.
Rather than telling me directly, it guided me indirectly—showing me the path I must walk, the righteous path.
‘I understand.’
What your will is.
What I must do.
Clench.
With my fist clenched—the hand bearing the seal of righteousness—I nodded and opened my mouth.
“It’s not someone else’s problem.”
My Uncle, bound to me by blood, had nearly met with disaster.
Turning away would not be the righteous choice.
“Thank you. I’m grateful.”
Kang Doo-seok approached with a slightly lighter expression, patting my back.
After a brief embrace, I turned toward my Uncle.
“Uncle, I’d like to continue what you were saying earlier.”
Uncle lifted his head abruptly, meeting Kang Hyung-seok’s gaze, and Kang Hyung-seok continued speaking as he watched the ambulance depart.
“I think I’ll need to ask a Shaman I know for help. If you tell me the hospital’s location, I should be able to do what I did before.”
“Huh? What?”
“We don’t have time. Ideally, I’d like them all in the same hospital room, but if that’s not possible, we’ll have to make do.”
Kang Hyung-seok’s words were unfamiliar, so Uncle needed a moment to process them.
“Ah, I understand. And what should I do?”
“Just handle the costs.”
For a moment, Uncle rolled his eyes as if searching for a solution, then nodded firmly.
“I can manage that somehow.”
“To be thorough, we need to find the Alcohol Distributor first.”
“…Is there something else?”
Kang Hyung-seok shook his head with his lower lip caught between his teeth, then opened his mouth.
“We’ll have to see.”
The Alcohol Distributor understood Shamanism.
But in case—if his intention wasn’t to harm people.
What if what he truly desired was the construction site itself?
The worst imaginable scenario would be casualties occurring in the building.
Construction accidents, fires, collapses, gas explosions—the possibilities were endless.
The incidents that could happen in a building cursed with misfortune were infinite.
‘He’s someone who could fabricate false accusations. If he deliberately hid it, it would be difficult to find.’
If he’d already thickly coated it with cement, even with the Shaman’s Bell’s help, it would be hard to locate.
So finding that man first was the fastest solution.
Kang Hyung-seok spoke quietly to Uncle, who was about to make a phone call.
“That person—was he introduced to you, or did he apply with a resume?”
Uncle stopped moving his fingers across his phone and looked up, meeting Kang Hyung-seok’s gaze.
***
Vroom.
(I’ve already reached out to other construction companies, so I’ll let you know right away if I find anything else.)
My uncle’s voice came through the car speakers connected via Bluetooth.
“Yes.”
(And about that hospital location you mentioned—I’ll text you the details once the admission is finalized, so I’m counting on you!)
“Understood.”
Kang Hyung-seok, who had been staring ahead, briefly glanced at the vehicle’s display before looking away.
“Phew!”
I needed to focus on driving for now.
The Alcohol Distributor was someone who had been introduced to me.
I was on my way to find this person first, and I desperately hoped he would know the whereabouts of the Alcohol Distributor.
Vroom.
Upon reaching the residential district, I slowed down and pulled into a nearby public parking lot.
I parked the car in a suitable spot, took another sip of coffee before getting out, and grabbed the Shaman’s Bell.
Then I stepped out of the car and walked while checking my phone’s map.
The night breeze was quite cool.
‘Please let him know where the person is.’
I had met with construction companies before, so I understood their dynamics to some extent.
Construction workers had a different nature than office workers.
In the case of day laborers, quitting was relatively easy, so they would leave without hesitation for other job sites.
Because of this, their residence was often a lodging facility like a motel rather than a home.
If this person didn’t know either, finding that man who distributed the alcohol would be far from easy.
Thud.
Standing before a quiet residential house with dim streetlight, I exhaled a long breath through my nose.
The phone displaying the map indicated I was right in front of my destination.
Ding-dong.
The old doorbell creaked as it rang, and I looked up at the house.
There was a wall, and it was a two-story building.
It was an old structure, and an unnamed tree occupied space inside.
Click.
A light came on in the window hidden behind the tree.
As I exhaled, a faint shadow of a person appeared and came down from inside.
“Who is it?”
A middle-aged man’s voice came from behind the closed entrance door.
“I apologize for the late hour. Do you know Park Ji-hoon?”
When I mentioned my uncle’s name, a brief silence followed.
Then the door opened, and a short, sturdy-looking man poked his head out with a suspicious expression.
“Why is the safety manager here?”
Click.
Fearing the door might close, I grabbed it firmly.
The flustered man tried to close the door, but Kang Hyung-seok’s strength proved superior.
As the worn hinges creaked, Kang Hyung-seok locked eyes with the man and opened his mouth.
“I’m talking about the person who shared alcohol with you. I heard you were brought in through your teacher’s introduction.”
That was the moment.
A flash of bewilderment swept across the man’s face, however brief.
This was precisely why Kang Hyung-seok had come in person rather than calling.
Subtle shifts in expression, the tremor in one’s pupils, the atmosphere a person emanates—none of these could ever be discerned over the phone.
Having dealt with people as a Sales Department employee, Kang Hyung-seok possessed the ability to detect and interpret even the minutest reactions.
“That person has gone silent. Do you happen to know where he went?”
“What the hell! Coming out here in the dead of night, what is this nonsense!”
It was deep night in a desolate alley.
Yet the man’s raised voice only betrayed how panicked he truly was.
“Park Ji-hoon is my maternal uncle, and everyone who drank the alcohol he distributed has been admitted to the hospital.”
“What, what?”
His pupils trembled more violently.
This was genuine shock.
“The safety manager? That person also received alcohol, didn’t they?”
“Fortunately, they didn’t drink it, so they’re fine. But do you know where that person is right now?”
The man pressed his lips firmly shut and lowered his head.
Yet his pupils darted upward, studying Kang Hyung-seok’s expression.
Thud!
I knew it.
Kang Hyung-seok, who had been applying pressure with his hand to prevent the door from closing, spoke in an even lower voice.
“You know, don’t you? What’s your relationship to them?”
“No, no. I, I don’t know. I’m telling you I don’t know.”
“You do know.”
“Damn it, who the hell are you? Why are you asking me this?”
At that moment, something caught Kang Hyung-seok’s eye.
An old talisman affixed to the staircase visible through the crack in the door.
The color had faded in the sunlight, and the surrounding darkness made it difficult to see clearly.
Yet Kang Hyung-seok could discern what type of talisman it was, and his eyebrows twitched.
That was a talisman hung in front of a Shamanic Temple.
“Damn it, who the hell are you!”
Kang Hyung-seok shifted his gaze to the snarling man.
He kept the door from closing with steady pressure and took a step closer.
‘How did I miss this.’
That this man was no ordinary person.
Not all practitioners of Shamanism operate their own temples.
Some lacked the calling, received a lesser spirit despite being chosen, or became shamans due to fate yet wished to live ordinary lives.
There were those who lived as non-shamans for all manner of reasons.
This man was precisely that type of person.
“Why don’t you know who I am?”
The aura emanating from his body was unmistakably that of one who had received a divine presence.
Yet it was far too faint.
“W-what are you saying….”
Thud.
As Kang Hyung-seok stepped closer, the man released his grip on the door and retreated.
“You should be able to tell who I am, shouldn’t you?”
The man’s pupils trembled.
Kang Hyung-seok met his gaze directly and withdrew the Shaman’s Bell from his pocket.
Clang-clang-clang!
The ringing Shaman’s Bell radiated a potent spiritual force.
And the man’s pupils shifted from Kang Hyung-seok to something behind him.
As if he were gazing upon another figure standing at Kang Hyung-seok’s back.
“H-huh! Haaaah!”
The man collapsed, his trembling arms and legs scraping against the ground as he scrambled backward.
Kang Hyung-seok followed him past the entrance and, keeping his eyes fixed on the man, pulled the door shut.
Slam!
The door closed firmly.
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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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