An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 87

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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 86
Part 5. The Great Master Arrives! (1)
Vroom.
The car came to a stop.
Yet Shin Jung-ah, her mind elsewhere, remained sprawled across the back seat.
“Director?”
Kang Hyung-seok called out, but Shin Jung-ah didn’t so much as twitch.
Her mind was undoubtedly consumed entirely by the word possession.
“Are you all right…?”
It was then.
Bang!
Shin Jung-ah threw open the door and bolted, only to be caught immediately by Kang Hyung-seok.
“Let go! Let go! Release me!”
“Director, please, I’m begging you—just this once!”
“Just this once?! I won’t do it! You said you’d help, but you never mentioned possession! You’re insane!”
Shin Jung-ah’s face was twisted with genuine terror.
She had already witnessed ghosts several times.
So she knew better than anyone how terrifying such entities were.
To ask her to invite such a being into her own body was almost miraculous that she retained her sanity at all.
“Only you can do this, Director.”
Yet Kang Hyung-seok had no choice but to plead.
This truly was something only she could accomplish.
The Gate of Ghosts Star.
It was likely a star in Shin Jung-ah’s natal chart, marking her as someone with an open constitution to the supernatural.
A body more easily influenced than others, capable at times of accepting such influence.
That was who Shin Jung-ah was.
“It’s to save a life. Only you can do this, and it’s not something dangerous like a malevolent spirit or an evil entity.”
“How can you just ask me to be possessed?!”
“I won’t let anything dangerous happen.”
Kang Hyung-seok grasped Shin Jung-ah’s hand firmly.
Shin Jung-ah flinched in surprise and looked at him, while he bent at the waist and spoke with a strained voice.
“We have no time but today. There’s no room to seek help from another Shaman. If we miss today, I don’t know what will happen.”
“…”
“A Shaman harmed by a Goblin. Her father, the Blacksmith, wept before me. How can I turn away from that? How can I ignore a parent’s love for their child?”
Perhaps it was the earnestness in his voice.
Though Shin Jung-ah’s face remained tearful, she no longer thrashed about as she had before.
“…At least let go of this first.”
Shin Jung-ah, her eyes glistening with tears, tried to pull her hand away from Kang Hyung-seok.
But Kang Hyung-seok grasped it again with desperate determination, and finally Shin Jung-ah wrenched her hand free.
“Let go, will you!”
Shin Jung-ah smoothed her freed hands and bowed her head.
She appeared lost in thought, so Kang Hyung-seok remained silent for a moment before speaking.
“Your friend must have been in desperate circumstances too.”
Recently, Shin Jung-ah had asked Kang Hyung-seok for help with something.
For her friend’s sake, Kang Hyung-seok had to move even on a weekend.
“When you moved, you were in desperate circumstances as well, weren’t you?”
Two relocations.
And memories of suffering from ghosts in both houses.
Kang Hyung-seok had helped her then too.
“You understand that feeling.”
Shin Jung-ah squeezed her eyes shut and let out a sound like “Ugh!”
Then, after a long moment, she barely managed to nod.
“You’re going to help me?”
“Yes, that’s right!”
Shin Jung-ah cried out with a sharp yet trembling voice.
Still, Kang Hyung-seok felt gratitude welling up first.
Because he understood how difficult this request was to grant.
“Thank you so much, Director!”
“Hey, Director Kang….”
“Yes.”
Shin Jung-ah began to glare at him fiercely, her eyes glistening with tears.
“You really…. Really! Ugh.”
“I know. I truly understand.”
Knowing the weight of her resolve, Kang Hyung-seok spoke in a soothing tone.
Then he shifted his gaze toward the car.
Since it wasn’t a vehicle with dark tinting, Yoon Sang in the passenger seat was clearly visible.
If this gets aired on broadcast, you’d better be prepared.
Of course, Yoon Sang could see Kang Hyung-seok just as clearly and could read the message in his eyes.
Yoon Sang swallowed hard and nodded vigorously.
Though somewhat chaotic, all the necessary personnel were now assembled.
***
Whoooosh.
I poured glutinous rice across the earthen ground.
Yoon Sang and Shin Jung-ah were arranging candle lights in a wide, circular pattern around us.
Deep within the mountains, deep in the night.
After searching through the Gangneung area, I had found the mountain with the clearest spiritual energy.
Having removed all the fallen leaves from the surroundings to prevent fire, we were making meticulous preparations to succeed in the séance.
Click, click.
“Hey, stop taking so many photos.”
“Sister, I need these for the broadcast….”
“That’s just an excuse—you keep stopping anyway. Do you think I don’t notice?”
While Yoon Sang and Shin Jung-ah, who had grown closer without realizing it, bickered beside me, I surveyed the glutinous rice I had spread widely.
Glutinous rice possessed the power to repel malevolent spirits.
I pressed my palms together and offered a brief prayer, then picked up my phone.
Ring, ring, ring.
(Hello?)
It was the Blacksmith’s voice, and the usual scent of alcohol was absent.
“Master Park Sang-chul.”
(Yes, yes, you’re the Dharma Master, aren’t you?)
“Please feel free to call me informally. In any case, we’ll begin within the next twenty minutes.”
(Yes.)
Park Sang-chul the Blacksmith answered with a voice that carried even a hint of solemnity.
“Your role is crucial. Have you followed everything I instructed you on?”
(Of course. I haven’t missed a single thing.)
There were several things I had asked of Park Sang-chul.
Not to drink alcohol, at least not today.
Especially pork—not a single bite, and to avoid any seasonings containing pork as well.
“Are the pillars I asked you to set up on both sides of the warehouse entrance ready?”
I lowered my voice, cautious that someone else might overhear.
(Yes. I’ve prepared the sacred rope as well.)
In that moment, I pictured Park Sang-chul weaving straw to create the sacred rope.
A sacred rope meant to block the Goblin that tormented the Shaman.
That was why the rope’s power would be amplified only if Park Sang-chul, the Shaman’s father, made it himself.
“The sacred rope must not break under any circumstances. If it does, there’s no telling what an enraged Goblin might do.”
While I summoned the great Goblin.
For exactly that duration.
Park Sang-chul would need to restrain the Goblin clinging to the Shaman.
(…Yes.)
“One last thing I must ask of you.”
(Yes, yes, please tell me anything.)
I turned my gaze toward the direction where the village lay and continued with an earnest voice.
“You must not be deceived by the Goblin. You cannot trust everything you see or hear.”
Bewitched by the Goblin.
This warning existed for good reason.
Many things could bewitch a person, but few could match what a Goblin could do.
When something that potent set its mind to it, most people found resistance nearly impossible.
“It will be difficult. Still, I ask that you think of it as something you’re doing for your daughter.”
(….)
“Master?”
(I can do anything for my daughter, Dharma Master.)
Kang Hyung-seok drew up the corners of his mouth bitterly.
Park Sang-chul’s voice carried such overwhelming sincerity.
As if he had already made peace with death itself.
“If you simply follow what I’ve told you, there should be no major problems. In the worst case, just do as I’ve instructed.”
A Goblin ritual.
A ceremony to threaten the Goblin.
Park Sang-chul had already completed all the preparations for it.
But he did not wish for them to be used.
In the first place, these were not things a non-Shaman like Park Sang-chul should perform.
(Yes. I will do exactly as you say.)
“Then we shall begin shortly. Please prepare yourself as well.”
Kang Hyung-seok ended the call.
Yoon Sang and Shin Jung-ah had already laid out all the candles and were lighting them.
Ideally, torches should have been used.
But since they were difficult to obtain on short notice, they substituted with candle lights, and with so many installed, the lack of torches was hardly felt.
“Whoooosh.”
Damn this mountain.
The night air was utterly ominous.
The candle flames swayed in the wind, casting flickering crimson light in all directions.
Kang Hyung-seok walked through them and inspected the offerings on the platform.
Raw pork organs arranged on round plates.
Millet cakes and millet porridge.
Sweet rice punch and soju.
After confirming the food was in order, he checked the glutinous rice scattered around the area once more.
“We shall begin.”
No response came back.
Kang Hyung-seok had given prior instruction for this.
Clang, clang, clang!
Having vigorously shaken the Shaman’s Bell to purify the surroundings, Kang Hyung-seok drew in a deep breath.
I feel it. The Guardian Spirit entering.
Union with the divine occurring.
Whoosh.
As the atmosphere shifted as if a different person had taken over, Yoon Sang felt mesmerized and reached for his phone.
But Shin Jung-ah pressed his wrist, preventing him from taking a photograph.
Clang! Clang-clang! Clang-clang-clang!
“Great Spirit dwelling in Samgak Mountain, Seoul, Spirit dwelling in Baekdu Mountain, Hamgyong, Spirit dwelling in Jiri Mountain, Jeolla, Spirit dwelling in Gyeryong Mountain, Chungcheong.”
Kang Hyung-seok shook the Shaman’s Bell.
Wind swept through, causing the candle flames to flicker, yet mysteriously, not a single candle was extinguished.
The air transformed, and a solemn atmosphere enveloped the surroundings like a curtain.
“Huff, huff, huff.”
Shin Jung-ah felt her breathing grow ragged.
Not from fear of Shamanism, but because her senses had sharpened to the acute awareness that something was happening in this very place.
“With fine wine and good food offered, I humbly invite you.”
In such an atmosphere, Kang Hyung-seok continued the ritual with the altar before him.
The initial purification rite.
A ritual that must be performed before summoning the spirits—one that cleanses the space and draws forth the guidance of the divine.
“Come to this place, receive the offerings, and depart in comfort and joy.”
And the being Kang Hyung-seok sought to summon was a great Goblin.
Whiiiing! Fluttering!
Among the hundreds of candles arranged in a circle, the farthest one was extinguished.
Clang-clang! Clang-clang! Clang-clang-clang-clang!
Kang Hyung-seok shook the Shaman’s Bell toward the direction where the candle had gone out, guiding with fervent voice.
“The great Spirit enters!”
***
The cry of a Korean scops owl echoed from afar.
Park Sang-chul sat hugging his knees, staring at the warehouse door.
Only the pale moonlight illuminated the courtyard at this hour.
Memories from the past three years surfaced, flickering before his eyes.
‘Your daughter’s spirit has vanished. Consider yourself fortunate! Had it not, she would be better off writhing in hellfire.’
That was what the woman they had brought in, claiming to be a great Shaman, had said.
My heart felt as though it were crumbling, yet part of me felt relieved.
If her spirit had vanished, then my daughter would not suffer.
I had convinced myself that the nightly screams and head-banging were merely the Goblin’s antics, not my daughter.
‘Your daughter’s spirit is alive.’
So when Kang Hyung-seok spoke these words, my vision darkened.
My daughter was being tormented by the Goblin, yet her father knew nothing.
I had lived like a wastrel, drowning myself in drink.
How resentful she must have been.
How much she must have suffered.
Park Sang-chul stared blankly at the door before retching silently.
Guilt gnawed at his insides like a rat.
“Ugh! Ugh-ugh!”
His eyes reddened from the retching, he lifted his head, drool streaming down his chin.
A fierce resolve burned in his eyes, shining brighter than the moonlight itself.
‘My daughter.’
My precious daughter.
Suffering while her father could do nothing for her.
I would do anything for that daughter.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
My daughter began headbutting the inside of the warehouse door.
The Goblin’s torment had begun.
Park Sang-chul rushed toward the warehouse with a silent scream, stringing sacred rope across the two pillars.
Then he pulled the rope taut.
Clang!
The warehouse door shook violently under the tension of the sacred rope.
Pulling the rope to prevent the Goblin from escaping, Park Sang-chul glared fiercely at the door.
It was then.
“Master.”
A low, sinister voice emerged from within the warehouse.
It was not his daughter’s voice.
A voice deep and hoarse like a man’s, gravelly and low.
The strange voice continued calmly.
“What are you doing, Master?”
Park Sang-chul squeezed his eyes shut and pulled the sacred rope with all his strength.
The door didn’t budge an inch, yet strangely, I felt tension in the sacred rope—as if something beyond it were straining to break through.
Something desperate to burst outward.
‘I see nothing. I hear nothing.’
Park Sang-chul gripped the sacred rope, his entire body erupting in goosebumps.
Screech, screeeech.
The sound of metal grinding against metal seized his attention.
And when Park Sang-chul realized what that sound was, terror flooded through him.
Clang.
The metal latch securing the warehouse door.
It had come undone of its own accord and clattered to the ground.
And through the hole where that latch had been, a pair of crimson eyes fixed upon Park Sang-chul from within the warehouse, burning with malevolent intent.
A Goblin.

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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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