An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 64

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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 64
Part 5. Not Everyone Is Like You (1)
In Shamanism, doors carry symbolic meaning.
Severance.
A closed door is obstruction; an open door is revelation.
Naturally, those outside cannot see within, and the reverse holds equally true.
Thus, what stands closest to a door is death itself.
Only death serves as the boundary dividing the afterlife from the living world. For this reason, doors are depicted across all cultures—East and West alike—as possessing mystical power.
Creak.
The door swung open to reveal a man roughly the same age as Gwak Young-ho.
His attire was neat indoor wear, yet his face bore the weight of deep concern.
“I’ve been expecting you.”
The man greeting the Shamans appeared to be the Poultry Farm Owner.
Yet the atmosphere hardly called for exchanging business cards, so Kang Hyung-seok studied his expression carefully as I stepped inside the house.
‘A house with a patient….’
Not all, perhaps, but houses with patients carry the scent of hospitals.
I couldn’t place it exactly, but it was likely the smell of medicine and disinfectant.
“Where is your father?”
Lee Geum-kyung asked where her acquaintance was, and his son pointed to the Inner Room with both hands.
Lee Geum-kyung had brought only Kang Hyung-seok with her.
Thud.
The other Shamans had to wait outside, yet none voiced complaint.
It was a matter of standing.
The prestige, reputation, and standing Lee Geum-kyung had built.
And the standing possessed by Kang Hyung-seok’s Guardian Spirit.
Click.
Having closed the door, Lee Geum-kyung drew a deep breath through her nose.
“What do you see with your eyes?”
She spoke to Kang Hyung-seok as though expecting something, but I could only shake my head.
“Nothing particularly stands out.”
“Precisely. A Shaman abandoned by the divine.”
Lee Geum-kyung moved toward the bed in the Inner Room.
Upon it lay an elderly man, withered and gaunt, his arms laden with hanging IV bags.
Whoosh.
Gazing at the unconscious man, Lee Geum-kyung’s eyes filled with pity.
“The fate of every Shaman. Even if the divine once dwelt within, they do not protect forever. Eventually, that end arrives.”
“I had never considered such a thing.”
I had always believed that the divine departed only when one committed grave sins.
That was my understanding.
“Your expression is heavy. Are you grieving?”
“If it’s a predetermined end, there seems to be no reason to grieve.”
“That’s right. That’s the answer.”
Lee Geum-kyung nodded slowly and grasped the man’s hand on the bed.
“A man who lived his entire life as merely an ordinary Shaman. Yet despite that, he was more of a Shaman than anyone else.”
Kang Hyung-seok gazed at the man’s face, withered like dead wood.
It was difficult to imagine what he looked like in his youth.
Yet from his thick eyebrows and firm jaw relative to his age, I could sense what kind of character he possessed.
“He tried to help more people than his abilities warranted, and he actually did so. So much so that many Shamans lamented that he never received a great deity.”
Though he was not a master Shaman, he lived that way.
The man Lee Geum-kyung remembered was such a Shaman.
Swish, swish.
Lee Geum-kyung rubbed the man’s hand firmly while exhaling a small sigh.
“I will pave the path well for you. If you go first, I will prepare a place of rest for you as well.”
What must it feel like.
The heart of Lee Geum-kyung, who must bid farewell to a friend.
And the feeling of one who knows that they too will someday meet the same end.
“Let’s go.”
Leaving the Inner Room, Lee Geum-kyung immediately began preparing a ritual to cleanse the spiritual impurity.
There were thirteen Shamans in total.
Ten Shamans, Lee Geum-kyung, Kang Hyung-seok, and Hong Kyung-soo.
‘Did the teacher intend this?’
A thought suddenly occurred—had she deliberately summoned thirteen people?
No, Lee Geum-kyung had not welcomed Hong Kyung-soo.
If that were the case, it meant she had intended twelve Shamans, and with Hong Kyung-soo’s attendance, it became thirteen.
In Shamanism, thirteen is not a favorable number.
“Hong Kyung-soo, you should wait outside.”
As expected.
When Kang Hyung-seok looked at Hong Kyung-soo, he nodded as if he had anticipated this and stepped outside the Entrance.
“Didn’t you come to help us?”
The bewildered Son asked, and Lee Geum-kyung pressed her lips firmly together before responding in a reassuring tone.
“There’s no need to worry. It’s to ensure everything is as certain as possible.”
“Ah, yes.”
The Son, despite being a Shaman’s child, seemed unfamiliar with the details and nodded with a confused expression.
He appeared to think there was some particular reason for this.
Swish, rustle.
The twelve Shamans, excluding Hong Kyung-soo, began preparing the ritual.
Such a sight would not be common.
When could one ever witness so many Shamans gathering in one place to prepare a ritual?
“I will help as well.”
However, when there are too many people, there will inevitably be someone left out.
I was like that.
“Goodness! No, no. Please rest. You should rest.”
“We’ll take care of this. Just have a seat.”
Even though I offered to help, the Shamans waved their hands in alarm.
They seemed uncomfortable with me, who walked alongside a Guardian Spirit of a different divine rank.
So I helped the Son pour coffee into paper cups instead.
“You’re quite young to be such a prominent Shaman.”
For the Son to say such a thing, the Shamans must have treated me like some precious young master.
I laughed awkwardly and shook my head.
“That’s not it.”
“Oh, come now. My father is a Shaman too, so I know these things.”
I had heard that Shaman’s story from Lee Geum-kyung.
So in the Son’s gaze toward me, there was both pity for his father and envy toward me.
“House Owner, please sit down. I’ll bring these around.”
I said this and carried the paper cups on a tray, but the Son’s eyes remained fixed on me.
The preparation took a full hour.
During that time, Lee Geum-kyung had changed into ritual robes, and the other two female Shamans had also dressed in theirs.
‘This is a type of cleansing ritual.’
Typically, cleansing rituals are performed for the deceased.
But the subject of this ritual had not yet ended their life.
The process of comforting the dead was omitted, and it appeared to be a form of purification—washing away only the karma accumulated during his life.
Thump, thump, thump.
The ritual began as the Shamans seated along the Living Room wall played traditional instruments.
Rustle.
Two Shamans raised a straw mat upright.
Then they dressed the subject in clothes and filled the head area with rice.
After placing a traditional hat on top, it took on a vaguely human form.
Whoosh!
Lee Geum-kyung swept the effigy held by the two Shamans with a broom.
Then she sang a shamanic chant in a slow, measured melody.
“Sweep away the calamity, sweep it away, sweep away the calamity. Ward off the calamity, prevent it, ah-huh, ah-huh-huh, let us prevent it—the seventh month, the eighth month, the ninth month, the fourth month, the fifth month at the winter solstice, the sixth month, ah-heh-heh, ah-heh-heh, let us sweep away the calamity.”
The melody was sorrowful and serene.
So it felt like something other than a ritual performance.
It was almost like a sacred religious ceremony, or perhaps a traditional performance.
Swish.
Lee Geum-kyung moistened the broom with water and swept the effigy clean.
“Do you know?”
One of the Shamans who had shown strong curiosity toward me since in front of the house spoke softly.
I smiled faintly and nodded.
“It’s a cleansing ritual, isn’t it?”
“Excellent.”
Satisfied with the response, a faint smile spread across the Shaman’s lips.
It was knowledge that a younger person—especially a Shaman with limited experience—might not possess.
The cleansing ritual consisted of three stages in total.
Whoosh!
Lee Geum-kyung dipped the broom in mugwort water and swept across the effigy as if washing it clean.
Now that they had reached the second stage, only the fragrant water remained for the final step.
Kang Hyung-seok watched the other Shamans prepare the fragrant water while breathing slowly and deliberately.
‘Peaceful and smooth.’
Soon the cleansing would end, Lee Geum-kyung would sing the closing incantation, and they would dismantle this ritual.
In the warm atmosphere, the people here would share a meal and celebrate, and Lee Geum-kyung would introduce the Poultry Farm Owner and me to each other.
Then it would all be over.
It should be.
It had to be.
Thud!
Suddenly, Lee Geum-kyung froze mid-sweep, and the fragrant water spilled.
At the same moment, the warm air that had enveloped the surroundings turned bitterly cold.
“Who is it?”
A voice as icy as winter frost.
And an even colder gleam in Lee Geum-kyung’s eyes.
As the bewildered Shamans exchanged glances, Kang Hyung-seok felt what she felt.
Snap!
Kang Hyung-seok immediately crossed the Living Room.
“W-wait, wait…!”
A flustered male Shaman stood up and tried to stop him, but Lee Geum-kyung raised her voice.
“Stay still!”
The moment the Shaman hesitated, Kang Hyung-seok reached the window frame.
He threw open the window and quickly scanned the surroundings.
Every hair on his nape and forearms stood on end.
“Hyung-seok! Did you find it?”
The Shamans and even the Son of the afflicted stared at Lee Geum-kyung in confusion.
Drip, drop.
Dark red blood poured from Lee Geum-kyung’s nose.
“T-teacher!”
A Shaman assisting the ritual rushed toward her, but Lee Geum-kyung shook her head vigorously and covered her nose.
Now the other Shamans seemed to sense something as well.
Someone had interfered with the cleansing.
“What kind of madman…”
A thick-browed male Shaman muttered a curse through gritted teeth, while the Shamans beside him stiffened their faces and looked around cautiously.
Some watched Kang Hyung-seok’s back with expressions of shock.
These were the Shamans summoned by Lee Geum-kyung.
All of them were genuine Shamans, and each possessed exceptional skill.
What even such accomplished practitioners had detected a beat too late, the young Kang Hyung-seok had discerned almost simultaneously with Lee Geum-kyung.
A Shaman of a different caliber entirely.
It was right after the Shamans had stiffened their bodies and faces upon seeing Kang Hyung-seok, or trembled slightly.
Clang clang clang!
Kang Hyung-seok withdrew the Shaman’s Bell from his bosom and shook it vigorously.
In that instant, every Shaman’s gaze converged upon him.
They could recognize it as well.
That the Shaman’s Bell Kang Hyung-seok wielded was no ordinary instrument.
That it was befitting one who had received a great spirit, a sacred object permitted to him alone.
Clang clang clang clang!
Though all eyes were fixed upon him with mingled reverence and admiration, Kang Hyung-seok continued shaking the Shaman’s Bell with his jaw clenched.
‘I must find it. This is no ordinary interference.’
This was a cleansing ritual for a Shaman who had lived her entire life in service to others.
It was a sacred ceremony that must not be disturbed under any circumstances.
Yet such a ceremony had been disrupted by something profoundly sinister.
Clang! Clang! Clang clang clang!
As Kang Hyung-seok shook the Shaman’s Bell toward the window, Lee Geum-kyung brought her hands together and closed her eyes.
It was immediately after this.
Clang!
Kang Hyung-seok stilled the Shaman’s Bell and slowly lowered his gaze.
He had not located the source of the interference, yet he sensed something directed toward him.
“Huff!”
In the unmarked parking lot before this building.
There, before a parked car, a man with his hair tied back was looking up at Kang Hyung-seok while smoking a cigarette.
A Shaman uninvited to the ritual.
A Shaman who wore black shamanic robes.
It was Hong Kyung-soo.

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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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