An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 7

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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 7
Part 3. What Must Not Be Seen (1)
Gangwon Province.
A single boat cut across a nameless 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 seated before him looked three years his senior.
The stench of blood permeated the boat.
It emanated from the carcass of a pig bleeding across the wooden planks.
Creak-creak, creak-creak.
As 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, as if stirring the very souls of the dead, accelerated rapidly, weaving an uncanny 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 remain hidden from all eyes, that no one must speak of, yet one that must awaken the long-slumbering dead through the voice of the drum.
Crack.
The man in black bound a glass bottle filled with rice tightly with white cord, then hurled it into the depths of the lake.
A soul-retrieving ritual.
Thud, clatter.
The bottle, drawn by the white cord, scraped along the lake bottom.
What struck the bottle 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 passage. Yet the bottle moved indifferently onward, guided by the white cord.
“Whiiiiiii!”
Whistling to summon the spirits, the man continued pulling 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 intensified, rising sharply and vividly.
Jingle, jingle, jingle.
As the shaman’s bells clashed violently against one another, the man retrieved the bottle from the lake.
The Drummer held his breath and lowered his drumstick, looking up at the man.
Before him, the man untied the cord and opened the bottle’s cap.
Whoosh.
The first thing to spill forth was white rice.
Pouring rice into his palm, he stirred it while ringing the shaman’s bell.
Tension deepened across Drummer’s face as ripples spread outward from their boat like a writhing serpent.
A pause.
The man sifting through the 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 intertwined.
The vengeful spirits of those devoured by tigers in ages past, and the tiger itself that had consumed them.
“The spirit has been retrieved.”
His voice emerged hoarse from prolonged silence as the man spoke.
“Hwoah!”
Boom boom boom boom!
Drummer cried out and struck the drum, while the man exhaled forcefully through the rhythm. Drawing breath from the depths of his being, he muttered in a low, rapid cadence.
“Miryul du ga pa je miryul du bul yak ri.”
Chanting the esoteric mantra, the man rubbed his palms together as if braiding rope.
The tiger fur and human hair began to tangle and bind.
Now this person’s soul would become Changgwi, eternally enslaved to the tiger, forever pursuing other victims.
The resentment of a spirit that could never achieve enlightenment deepened with each passing moment.
“Miryul du pil sa ga miryul du ga ren da miryul du pa sa cha.”
The man shook the Shaman’s bells while quickening his chanting, then withdrew a bamboo tube from his pocket and stuffed the hair inside.
The moment 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 these words to the bamboo tube, then turned his gaze toward Drummer.
“That’s done. Let’s go.”
“What about the pig?”
The man cast an indifferent glance toward the pig positioned in the center of the boat.
He had prepared it for the gut ritual, but now that the work was finished, it had become useless.
“Feed it to the spirits.”
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 fell, 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 struck up a conversation.
“What rumor is it this time?”
“Well, you know how Noh Su-chul left before?”
“Yes.”
“A new job posting went up, but it came down last night. It looks like they found a successful candidate.”
“Really?”
Pleased by the news, Kang Hyung-seok spoke with a slightly elevated voice without realizing it.
“Yes, yes. That’s good, isn’t it?”
“It is.”
Whether a position is filled or not, an empty seat is always certain in a company.
The past week had been a time to despise Noh Su-chul even more.
His departure happened without any proper handover, and worse, Noh Su-chul had merely postponed work rather than actually handling anything properly.
Even Gwak Young-ho, who was generally a good-natured manager, had been heard muttering curses about him.
“I hope a good person comes this time.”
“As long as they’re competent at their job, that’s all that matters. But you don’t know who’s coming, do you?”
“No!”
Her spirited energy was refreshing.
Kang Hyung-seok nodded briskly and opened his laptop on his desk.
He connected the charger cable, and since his mouse was Bluetooth, there was nothing else to set up….
“Manager Kang!”
“Yes, sir.”
Kang Hyung-seok, who had been about to connect his laptop to the monitor, turned his head to look at Gwak Young-ho.
Standing at the doorway, he wore an expression of considerable discomfort.
He looked like someone carrying a burden too difficult to voice.
“You came in early. Have you had your coffee?”
Kang Hyung-seok rose from his seat, noticing that Gwak Young-ho seemed to have something on his mind.
“No, sir. Have you?”
“Not yet either. How about a cup?”
Indeed, Gwak Young-ho appeared to have something to say.
Kang Hyung-seok poured instant coffee into two paper cups from the break room and climbed to the rooftop with Gwak Young-ho.
“Ugh, why is the weather like this today? It’s so gloomy.”
“They say it will rain this afternoon.”
“Is that so? Ah, that won’t do.”
One of Kang Hyung-seok’s eyebrows furrowed as he was about to drink his coffee.
“Do you have an outside appointment this afternoon?”
“No, it’s just… well.”
It seemed difficult for him to speak.
“It’s fine. 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 from Namgoong Min-ah that the posting had been circulated.
It felt like that’s what Gwak Young-ho was about to say.
“You know Director Shin Chang-yong, right?”
“Yes? Yes.”
One of the founding members.
Older than Gwak Young-ho and holding a management position, though it’s mostly ceremonial—his actual job is reading news on the computer.
Still, he has a straightforward personality, and whenever something comes up, he moves quickly to resolve it, so his reputation is fairly good.
If I had to point out a flaw, it would only be that his mindset is old-fashioned.
“His nephew is coming on board.”
“…Yes?”
“It’s not like he’s being pushed in through connections. Apparently, the director recently suggested it to him while he was looking into job openings elsewhere.”
“If he has experience, that’s fine.”
Having an incompetent boss is painful.
Just as painful as having a boss with a sharp tongue.
“He’s got good experience. Manager level, and he speaks Chinese and Japanese too, apparently.”
“Then isn’t that a good thing?”
“If it were only good, would my face look like this?”
Gwak Young-ho pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and took a drag.
He smoked about half of it in silence without saying another word.
“Ugh, why am I even asking you about 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 urgently found a place around here and asked if I could lend him a hand with the move.”
I sat in silence for a moment, then took a sip of my coffee.
Damn. I instantly understood why Gwak Young-ho had found it so difficult to say.
It’s not a difficult favor.
But it’s not a reasonable one either.
It was a request that cruelly illustrated why our company wasn’t a large corporation.
“I don’t understand why he’d ask someone from the company to do this when he could just hire a moving company. Seriously!”
“What reason did he give?”
“He said he can’t trust them. He said he can trust the company people since they’re like family, but he can’t trust outsiders.”
If it was Director Shin Chang-yong, I could see how that might be the case.
Beside Gwak Young-ho, who was smoking away, I sipped my coffee with a heavy expression.
There was still something Gwak Young-ho hadn’t said.
And that was likely the real reason he’d brought me all the way up to the rooftop.
“I’ll go.”
“…Sigh.”
“I’m fine with it. I know you’ve always looked out for me, sir.”
“…Kang.”
Gwak Young-ho’s face was genuinely moved.
“I appreciate you saying that. Honestly, there’s no one else I can ask. Sigh.”
“It’s nothing.”
This was manual labor.
It wouldn’t be right to send Namgoong Min-ah.
And Lee Jin-pyung was too taciturn to handle it well, so I was the only option he’d settled on.
“I should be the one protecting you from requests like this. I’m really sorry. And grateful.”
“Will there be a lot of luggage?”
“It shouldn’t be too difficult. The refrigerator and washing machine will probably be included as options, so just help organize the belongings and handle whatever they ask—nothing too demanding.”
That much wasn’t difficult.
It shouldn’t take more than half a day.
If Shin Chang-yong’s nephew actively helped, it might even finish faster.
“You’ll get to talk and bond. Think of it as getting closer to him before others do. And as earning points with Director Shin Chang-yong.”
Gwak Young-ho emphasized the advantages deliberately.
Not that he was squeezing out nonexistent benefits.
Getting in the good graces of a founding director certainly had its advantages—no doubt about it.
“Understood. When should I go, then?”
“He’ll probably sign the lease today. So get some rest tomorrow, and head over around lunchtime.”
My brow furrowed.
I was wondering if this was really something worth postponing work for.
“Right away?”
“Were you planning to work while you’re at it?”
Gwak Young-ho looked at me approvingly and lit a cigarette.
“There. Don’t worry about the office work. I’ll handle it, so just focus on that.”
I couldn’t refuse an unreasonable request.
But he was doing his best to make it convenient for me.
Gwak Young-ho spoke with clear emphasis.
“Once this is all done, I’ll put in a good word upstairs and make sure you get something out of it. Just think of it as going on an external errand.”
“Understood.”
I smiled, mirroring Gwak Young-ho’s expression.
Then he took a sip of coffee with a bitter expression and opened his mouth.
“Still, I don’t know how grateful I am that you’re here. Thanks, Kang.”
I answered with a silent smile and sipped my coffee.
***
“Let me take a look around.”
The young woman carefully inspected the empty house before the middle-aged woman with 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.
“Since this side faces south, 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.”
Whoooosh!
Without responding, the woman turned on the sink faucet and surveyed the wallpaper with her brows drawn together.
“You had the wallpaper redone?”
“Of course. Right after the last tenant moved out, I had it all redone with silk wallpaper.”
“There are no defects, right?”
“None. Not a single one. And you know there’s no place like this for a deposit this size.”
The young woman nodded with a contemplative expression.
It was certainly true.
If she went to a place just one grade higher in condition, the deposit would jump to almost 1.5 times the amount.
Considering transportation and nearby conveniences, the house didn’t seem bad overall.
She especially liked how well-lit it was.
“Let’s sign the contract.”
“Oh my! You’ve made a good decision.”
The real estate agent quickly unfolded the contract, worried the young woman might change her mind.
“Just sign your name here.”
The young woman took the pen with its cap already open and, after a brief moment of hesitation, wrote her name.
Scratch, scratch.
【Shin Jung-ah】
She was the niece of Shin Chang-yong.

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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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