An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 85

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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 84
Part 4. The Goblin Laughed (2)
It was only after Kang Hyung-seok had completely emerged from the Cave.
“H-hyung!”
Yoon Sang, who had been playing games on his phone, rushed over in a panic and grabbed his arm to steady him.
“Why, why is this…. Gasp!”
Yoon Sang recoiled in horror at the sight of the black salt water stains crusted across his face.
Even without spiritual sight, Yoon Sang could immediately sense that something was profoundly wrong.
My lips were parched beyond dryness, cracked and bleeding, and my complexion was corpse-like—anyone could see that I was far from normal.
“H-hyung, are you alright?”
Yet I refused his support and thrust a device I’d retrieved from my pocket into his hands.
“Check this first. Quickly.”
“H-hyung?”
“The Goblin’s voice is recorded on it. Check if anything else was captured. Hurry.”
A recorder containing the Goblin’s voice.
For an Internet Broadcasting personality like Yoon Sang, it was something that should have sparked intense interest.
But my condition looked so dire that Yoon Sang, his face tense with concern, pressed play with trembling fingers.
“…Uh, u-uh?”
My voice had been recorded cleanly.
But the Goblin’s voice was obscured beneath a vicious wall of static.
[Crackle! Crackle, uh, crackle, this life, crackle crackle!]
It was an eerie sound difficult to decipher, yet fragments of what seemed unmistakably to be the Goblin’s voice pierced through sporadically.
Then Yoon Sang’s upper and lower teeth began to chatter.
Something deeply unsettling had just come through.
“Play that part again.”
“Y-yes, yes.”
Yoon Sang rewound the recorder and played the problematic section at full volume.
This time, it came through with perfect clarity.
[Please! Save me! Please let me live!]
A woman’s voice.
The voice of a Shaman driven to madness.
***
I closed my eyes in the driver’s seat and bowed my head.
Yoon Sang sprawled across the back seat in deep slumber, while all our luggage was packed into the trunk.
I appeared to be asleep as well, but I had not slept a single moment.
Instead, I offered a sincere prayer.
‘I need your help.’
The Shaman’s soul was ensnared by the Goblin.
‘My preparation was insufficient to suppress the Goblin. But with your aid, I believe I can utterly destroy it.’
A half-fledged Shaman without even the proper sacred implements.
The Goblin’s words suddenly surfaced, causing my brow to furrow.
If only I had possessed the sacred tools.
If only the Shaman’s Blade had been in my hands.
My chest ached at the thought that circumstances might have been different.
‘Lend me your strength. But if this is your trial, and if it is meant to forge me into a greater vessel….’
The Guardian Spirit would not lend me strength.
It would simply watch over me with a stance of observation.
As it had done in the Goblin’s cave.
‘I do not ask for your strength. Only watch over me quietly, and pray that I may see this through to completion.’
A Shaman whose heart has crumbled cannot obtain anything.
Not even themselves.
‘I am not asking for your power. Simply watch over me, and pray earnestly that I may accomplish what I must do.’
As I do now.
I ask that you too pray for me with sincere devotion.
I offered my prayer to the Guardian Spirit with a deep and clear heart.
“Mmm.”
Yoon Sang stirred in the back seat.
Morning had arrived, and sunlight streaming through the front window was disturbing his rest.
“Ugh… Goblin… Nngh.”
My concentration shattered by Yoon Sang’s sleep-talk, I opened my eyes.
I glanced back once, then grabbed my phone and stepped out of the car.
The sunlight was indeed pleasant.
The Mountain that had seemed ghostly even at night now appeared as nothing more than an ordinary Mountain.
I looked once at the Mountain where the Goblin dwelt, then searched my phone contacts for someone.
‘Professor Kim Jae-sik.’
The professor who had taught me folklore at university and recommended me to the Company.
Someone as close as family, and knowledgeable enough to be of great help in this matter.
Brrrring.
(Wait, who is this? Hyung-seok?)
Despite the early hour, Kim Jae-sik answered with a bright voice.
“Professor, hello. I hope you’ve been well.”
(I’m doing fine as always. What’s the matter? Calling this early. Did the CEO give you a hard time?)
Kim Jae-sik’s playful voice soothed the heaviness in my chest.
Kang Hyung-seok lifted the corners of his mouth and spoke in a more relaxed tone than before.
“It’s nothing in particular. I just wanted to ask you something.”
(What is it? Do you have something to research?)
“It’s not research, but it’s similar. I need some consultation. Do you happen to know how to exorcise a Goblin?”
(A Goblin? Ah, that’s a bit tricky.)
“Why is that…?”
(There’s no creature quite like the Goblin—famous by name but its true nature remains unknown. You’ve studied it yourself, haven’t you?)
That much was true.
Before Kang Hyung-seok could nod and answer “Yes, that’s right,” Kim Jae-sik’s voice continued.
(There’s this field of study on Korean Goblin morphology, right? But the descriptions of Goblins documented there are all different. Some describe them like monsters, others say they’re like mist, and some classify them as human-like. Basically, they’re all over the place.)
For a moment, Kang Hyung-seok wondered what reaction Kim Jae-sik would have if he mentioned that he’d actually seen a Goblin.
Probably he’d fly over in an instant and shove a recorder in his face.
(Since their appearances differ so much, their temperaments vary too. That’s why the methods of driving out Goblins differ by region.)
This was worth listening to carefully.
Kang Hyung-seok pressed his phone closer to his ear and listened intently to what Kim Jae-sik said next.
(On Jeju Island, they appease and entertain Goblins through spirit play, while inland, they threaten and drive them out through Goblin rituals.)
“Why does such a difference occur?”
(Wow, you’re quite passionate about this?)
Kim Jae-sik showed even greater interest than Kang Hyung-seok.
(Why don’t you wrap up the company and come work under me? It’s not too late even now. Hyung-seok, let’s have a smart graduate school life together. Just endure a few years and I’ll make you a professor.)
“No, really, Professor.”
I was already busy enough.
Balancing both company work and shamanic practice.
To be honest, on my days off, I just wanted to rest.
(Being a professor isn’t bad. Loans come through easily. The student cafeteria is better than our shabby company cafeteria.)
“I’m really fine!”
(Are you really sure?)
“Yes.”
(Sigh, someone like you should be holding a professorship. Tsk tsk.)
It was something I’d heard countless times since my university days.
Thanks to that, feeling like I’d returned to my college years, Kang Hyung-seok smiled nostalgically, forgetting his fatigue.
“I appreciate the sentiment, at least.”
(Anyway, this is just my thought, but I wonder if the difference between inland and Jeju Island comes down to how potent they are.)
A difference in potency?
Kang Hyung-seok frowned as he recalled the Goblin he’d seen in the cave.
That creature could only be described as potent.
(Jeju Island has always been a bit different from the mainland. Whether it’s due to proximity to Japan and cultural influence, Jeju Island spirits are said to be stronger.)
“So you appease something strong… and then deal with it?”
(Large Goblins are classified as entities like spirits or deities. There’s a theory that Buddhist yakshas are also Goblins, but how could you possibly drive out something like that?)
It was a somewhat disappointing answer.
Yet something felt like it was clicking into place.
‘A ritual to summon spirits, a ritual to drive away Goblins.’
These two seemingly incompatible practices merged into one within Kang Hyung-seok’s mind, and suddenly a crucial thread became visible.
“Professor, one last question, if I may. Do Goblins have hierarchies like humans do? Do they follow a chain of command?”
(What kind of question is that?)
“It’s something I really need to know.”
(Well, I’ve heard Shamans mention such things. I’ve even heard stories of larger Goblins dragging away smaller ones.)
At that moment, electricity seemed to surge down Kang Hyung-seok’s spine.
That was it. The pieces were coming together.
I’d found the key to dealing with that wretched creature.
“Thank you so much, Professor.”
(Huh? For what?)
“You’ve been an enormous help. I think I’m starting to understand something.”
(Seok.)
Professor Kim Jae-sik always called him this way when he was about to speak from the heart.
“Yes?”
(You haven’t gotten yourself tangled up in something strange, have you?)
“No, not at all.”
(Didn’t you say you received a spirit-pressing ritual before? Don’t tell me you’ve been possessed by a Goblin spirit…?)
“That’s not it, Professor.”
(Ah, you rascal. But listen, Seok, remember this. I’m a folklore professor, but I don’t know much about Shamanism. Still, I can tell you this much.)
Kim Jae-sik continued in a calm, measured voice.
(Shamans possessed by Goblins have a rough time of it. Many of them end up with bad luck afterward. So if you’re going to be possessed by anything, you might as well just be my assistant professor instead.)
At the joke that followed, Kang Hyung-seok burst into laughter.
After laughing so hard that tears streamed down his face, his heart felt incomparably lighter than it had been before the call.
“I’m fine, Professor!”
(Good, that’s what I like to hear. Any other questions?)
“None at all. More than anything, I’m so grateful you took my call this early in the morning.”
(Stop it, you’re embarrassing me.)
“Ha, my apologies.”
(Then I’m hanging up? I don’t know what you’re planning, but hang in there! Seok! Don’t get hurt!)
“Yes!”
Kang Hyung-seok ended the call and pressed the phone to his chest.
I really am surrounded by wonderful people.
The thought struck me suddenly.
‘All that’s left now is to catch the Goblin.’
Cradling the warmth that Kim Jae-sik had given me deep in my heart, I turned my thoughts to what lay ahead.
The Goblin-driving ritual and the spirit-summoning ritual.
I would need to use both.
I need to draw out that large Goblin hiding in the cave.
‘I’ll need many people. There’s much to prepare.’
Kang Hyung-seok lowered the hand holding his phone and shifted his gaze toward the direction of the Village.
There was much to prepare.
But before that, there was something I absolutely had to settle first.
***
Kang Hyung-seok walked through the Village at the slowest pace he could manage.
It was a Village where a Shaman had gone mad because of a Goblin, and since it was still morning, shadows stretched ahead of him.
Yoon Sang didn’t move with me.
I forcibly shoved him into the car when he tried to follow along.
Thud, thud.
If that guy had known what was on my mind, who I was about to meet, would he have followed?
Probably.
That’s the kind of guy he is.
Even with his own desires, he consistently shows his loyalty.
Such people are rare.
“Haaa.”
Kang Hyung-seok clenched and unclenched his fists with a tense expression, then approached the Blacksmith’s Shop.
Whether fortunately or unfortunately, the Blacksmith was awake, and our eyes met the moment I appeared.
“Master, I have something to tell you.”
A hostile glare flew at me like a blade.
“You rotten bastard.”
Clang.
The Blacksmith grabbed a sickle first and unleashed a sinister gaze.
“You came last night too, didn’t you? You shameless bastard!”
The Blacksmith strode forward menacingly, swinging the sickle.
If that blade caught my head, I’d become a fool who wouldn’t even remember being hit by a sickle.
Yet Kang Hyung-seok stood his ground without flinching.
“You son of a bitch!”
The Blacksmith’s rage intensified at this completely different attitude, and he swung the sickle harder.
“Damn it, you bastard! Did you come spouting that nonsense about sacred tools again? Get out, you dog! Even if dirt gets in my eyes, I won’t make you any sacred tools! You worthless scum!”
“I didn’t come because of sacred tools today.”
“Then what!”
Despite his harsh words, the Blacksmith seemed to have no intention of actually harming Kang Hyung-seok.
He had stopped at a distance where the sickle wouldn’t reach, which made it certain.
“I’ve found a way to cure your daughter.”
That was the moment.
The Blacksmith’s eyes, which had been filled with malice, wavered with a fleeting glimmer of hope.

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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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