An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 6

—————

This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

—————

Chapter 6
Part 3. What Must Not Be Seen (1)
Gangwon Province.
A single boat cut across an unnamed lake nestled deep within the mountains.
Creak, creak-creak.
The man rowing wore a white jeogori.
He appeared to be in his late thirties, while the man in black sitting before him looked three years his senior.
The stench of blood permeated the boat.
It came from the carcass of a pig bleeding across the deck.
Creak-creak, creak-creak.
When the boat reached the center of the lake, the man in white bowed deeply to the man in black.
Then he set down the oars and grasped the drumstick.
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
The drum’s resonance—a sound that stirred even the soul—accelerated rapidly, weaving an otherworldly atmosphere.
Boom-boom-boom! Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!
The Drummer, maintaining a steady rhythm with his drumstick, fixed his gaze upon the man in black.
The ritual had begun.
A shamanic rite that must never be witnessed by anyone, that no one must ever speak of—and yet one that must awaken the long-slumbering dead through the drum’s voice.
Clink.
The man in black bound a glass bottle filled with rice tightly with a white cord, then hurled it into the depths of the lake.
A soul-retrieval rite.
Thud, thud-clatter.
The bottle, drawn by the white cord, scraped along the lake bottom.
What it struck were the bones of humans and animals.
Countless skeletal remains, submerged so long their forms had crumbled, reached out like desperate hands to block the bottle’s path. Yet it passed through them indifferently, pulled by the white cord.
“Wheeeee!”
Whistling to summon the spirit, the man continued to pull the cord.
Jingle, jingle, jingle.
Adorning his hand like a ring was a shaman’s bell.
He whistled and shook his hand, ringing the bell as he drew the bottle upward.
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
The Drummer’s rhythm intertwined with the ritual, and the atmosphere grew sinister and damp.
Simultaneously, the stench of blood sharpened, rising in great waves.
Jingle, jingle, jingle.
As the shaman’s bells clashed violently, the man hauled the bottle from the lake.
The Drummer held his breath and stopped, looking up at the man.
Before him, the man untied the cord and opened the bottle’s cap.
Whoosh-pour.
The first thing to spill out was white rice.
He poured rice into his palm and stirred it while ringing the shaman’s bell.
Tension deepened across Drummer’s face as ripples spread outward from their boat like a coiling serpent.
A whisper.
The man sifting through rice froze, his finger suspended mid-motion.
Tangled within the grains lay clumps of hair that had never been placed there.
Tiger fur and human hair.
The spirits of those devoured by tigers in ages past, and the tiger that had consumed them.
“The spirits have been retrieved.”
His voice emerged hoarse from prolonged silence as he spoke.
“Hwoah!”
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
Drummer cried out and struck the drum, and the man exhaled through the rhythm, expelling breath drawn from deep within his body. His voice emerged low and rapid as he murmured.
“Miryul-duga-paje miryul-dubul-yakri.”
Chanting a Tantric incantation, the man rubbed his palms together as though weaving rope.
The tiger fur and human hair began to intertwine.
Now this person’s soul would become Changgwi, eternally enslaved to the tiger, forever pursuing other victims.
The resentment of the spirit, now eternally barred from enlightenment, deepened.
“Miryul-du-pilsa-ga miryul-du-garenda miryul-du-pa-sacha.”
The man shook the Shaman’s bells while moving his lips faster, then withdrew a bamboo tube from his pocket and inserted the hair inside.
As he sealed the lid, the malevolent energy that had saturated the surroundings vanished as if it had never existed.
And the bamboo tube trembled as though alive.
“Ripen well. When the time comes, I shall release you. You have work to do for this nation and for me.”
He murmured to the bamboo tube, then turned his head toward Drummer.
“That’s done. Let’s go.”
“What about the pig?”
The man shifted his gaze indifferently to the pig placed at the center of the boat.
They had prepared it for the exorcism ritual, but now that their purpose was fulfilled, it had become useless.
“Give it to the spirits as food.”
Drummer set down his drumsticks and pushed the pig toward the boat’s edge.
Moments later, dark crimson blood spread like mist from where the pig had been cast, then rapidly dissipated.
As though the vengeful spirits in the water had consumed every last drop of blood.
***
“Manager Kang, did you hear about that?”
It was the morning of a week after the Changgwi incident.
The moment Kang Hyung-seok sat down at his desk, Namgoong Min-ah from the adjacent seat leaned over and spoke to him.
“What rumor is it this time?”
“Well, you know how Noh Su-chul left before, right?”
“Yes.”
“A new job posting went up, but it was taken down last night. It looks like they found someone.”
“Really?”
Pleased by the news, I found myself speaking in a slightly higher pitch than usual.
“Yes, yes. That’s good, isn’t it?”
“It is.”
At a company, you never know who might fill a vacancy, but you can always be certain when someone leaves.
The past week had only deepened my contempt for Noh Su-chul.
There was the matter of his departure without any proper handover, but more than that, he’d simply postponed work without actually completing anything properly.
Even Gwak Young-ho, who was generally a good-natured man, had muttered “this bastard” within earshot.
“I hope a good person comes this time.”
“As long as they work well, that’s all that matters. But you don’t know who’s coming, do you?”
“No!”
Her spirited energy was refreshing.
I nodded briefly and opened my laptop on the desk.
I connected the charger cable, and since the mouse was Bluetooth, there was nothing else to set up…
“Manager Kang!”
“Yes, Director.”
I turned my head to look at Gwak Young-ho while connecting my laptop to the monitor.
Standing at the doorway, he looked quite troubled.
He had the appearance of someone with something difficult to say.
“You came in early. Have you had your coffee?”
I stood up from my seat, noticing that Gwak Young-ho seemed to have something on his mind.
“No, sir. Have you?”
“Not yet. How about a cup?”
Sure enough, Gwak Young-ho still looked like he had something to say.
I made two cups of instant coffee in paper cups from the break room and headed up to the rooftop with Gwak Young-ho.
“Ugh, why is the weather like this today? It’s so gloomy.”
“They say it will rain in the afternoon.”
“Is that so? Ah, that won’t do.”
One of my eyebrows furrowed as I was about to take a sip of coffee.
“Do you have an outside appointment in the afternoon?”
“No, it’s just… well.”
He seemed to be struggling with his words.
“It’s alright. Please speak freely.”
So when Kang Hyung-seok said this, the worry that had filled Gwak Young-ho’s face eased somewhat.
“I’m really sorry about this.”
“Is something wrong?”
“It’s nothing serious, but you know we’re hiring new people, right?”
“Yes. You mentioned the job posting went up before.”
I didn’t mention that I’d already heard the posting had been sent to Namgoong Min-ah.
It seemed like the kind of thing that would come from Gwak Young-ho’s mouth.
“You know Director Shin Chang-yong, right?”
“Yes? Yes.”
One of the founding members.
Older than Gwak Young-ho and holding a managerial position, though it was merely a formality—his actual job was watching the news on his computer.
Still, he had a straightforward personality, and whenever something came up, he moved quickly to resolve it, so his reputation was decent.
If I had to point out a flaw, it was only that his mindset was old-fashioned.
“His nephew is coming to work here.”
“…Yes?”
“It’s not like he’s being pushed in through connections. He was looking for a job transfer recently, and the director just recommended him.”
“If he has experience, that’s fine.”
Having an incompetent boss is painful.
Almost as painful as having a boss with a sharp tongue.
“He’s got good experience. He’s at the senior manager level, and he speaks Chinese and Japanese too.”
“Then isn’t that a good thing?”
“If it were only good, would my face look like this?”
Gwak Young-ho pulled a cigarette from his pocket and lit it.
He smoked about half of it in silence without saying a word.
“Ugh, why is he asking me for something like this? Tsk.”
“Is there something troubling you?”
Gwak Young-ho scratched his furrowed brow with the hand holding the cigarette.
“He asked me to lend him a hand.”
“Yes?”
“He said he found a place to live around here urgently and asked if I could lend him a hand.”
Kang Hyung-seok said nothing and sipped his coffee.
Damn. I understood instantly why Gwak Young-ho found this so difficult to say.
It’s not a difficult favor.
But it’s not a reasonable one either.
It was a request that cruelly made clear why our company wasn’t a major corporation.
“I don’t understand why he’d ask company people to do this when he could just hire a moving company. Seriously!”
“What reason did he give?”
“He said he can’t trust anyone else. He can trust company people because they’re like family, but he can’t trust outsiders.”
If it was Director Shin Chang-yong, well, I suppose that could be the case.
Beside Gwak Young-ho, who was smoking away, Kang Hyung-seok sipped his coffee with a heavy expression.
There was something Gwak Young-ho hadn’t yet said.
And it was likely the real reason he’d brought me all the way up to the rooftop.
“I’ll go.”
“…Sigh.”
“I don’t mind. I know you’ve always looked out for me, sir.”
“…Kang.”
Gwak Young-ho’s face showed genuine emotion.
“I appreciate you saying that. Honestly, I don’t have anyone else to ask. Sigh.”
“No, sir.”
It was physical labor.
Sending Namgoong Min-ah didn’t feel right.
And Lee Jin-pyung was too taciturn to handle it well, so I was the only option left.
“I should be the one protecting you from requests like this. I’m really sorry. And grateful.”
“Will there be a lot of luggage?”
“Nothing too difficult. The refrigerator and washing machine will probably come as options, so just help organize the boxes and handle whatever he asks—nothing complicated.”
That much wasn’t difficult at all.
It shouldn’t take more than half a day.
If Director Shin Chang-yong’s nephew helped actively, it might even finish faster.
“You’ll get to chat and all that. Think of it as getting closer to him before anyone else does. And think of it as earning points with Director Shin Chang-yong.”
Gwak Young-ho emphasized the advantages deliberately.
He wasn’t squeezing out non-existent benefits.
Getting in the good graces of a founding director certainly had its advantages.
“Understood. When should I go, sir?”
“He’ll probably sign the lease today. So get some rest tomorrow, then head over around lunchtime.”
My brow furrowed.
I wondered if this was something worth putting off my own work for.
“Right away?”
“Were you thinking of working too?”
Gwak Young-ho looked at me approvingly while lighting a cigarette.
“There. Forget it. Don’t worry about company work. I’ll handle it, so you just focus on that.”
I couldn’t shield him from this unreasonable request.
But I could at least make it as convenient as possible for him.
Gwak Young-ho spoke with emphasis, making sure I understood.
“Once this is all done, I’ll put in a good word with the higher-ups and make sure you get something out of it. Just think of it as a field visit.”
“Understood.”
I smiled, mirroring Gwak Young-ho’s expression.
Then he took a sip of coffee with a bitter look and opened his mouth.
“Still, I don’t know how grateful I am to have you. Thanks, Kang.”
I answered with a silent smile and sipped my coffee.
***
“Take a look around.”
The young woman examined the empty house carefully before the middle-aged woman who carried a folder labeled Golden Real Estate tucked under her arm.
Two rooms, one bathroom.
A two-story house built twenty-five years ago.
Still, with the interior remodeling completed, it didn’t give off an impression of being worn down.
“This unit faces south, so it’s not cold and quite nice. If you open that window over there and leave the bathroom door open, the ventilation works well too.”
Whoosh!
Without responding, the woman turned on the sink faucet and surveyed the wallpaper with her brows furrowed.
“You had the wallpaper redone?”
“Of course. Right after the last tenant moved out, I had it all redone with silk wallpaper.”
“No defects?”
“None. Not a single one. And you know there’s no place like this for a deposit this size.”
The young woman nodded, her expression thoughtful.
That was certainly true.
If she went to a place just one grade higher in condition, the deposit would jump to nearly 1.5 times the price.
Considering the transportation and nearby convenience facilities, the overall property didn’t seem bad at all.
She especially liked how well-lit it was.
“Let’s sign the contract.”
“Oh! You made a good decision.”
The real estate agent hurriedly unfolded the contract, worried the young woman might change her mind.
“Just sign your name here.”
The young woman accepted the pen with its cap already open and, after a brief moment of hesitation, wrote down her name.
Scratch, scratch.
【Shin Jung-ah】
The niece of Shin Chang-yong.

—————

This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

—————