Exorcism Specialist Company: Ghost Soul Trading - Chapter 53

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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 53
When I attacked the Old Woman Ghost with the blood-sealed blade without coating it in blood, she simply vanished.
But the moment I hurled the blood-stained blade at her, the Old Woman Ghost deliberately threw herself into its path.
It was clear she understood exactly what needed to be done to resolve her resentment.
Whoooooosh—
Another gust of frigid wind swept around the Old Woman Ghost.
Yerim, who had been pulling the trigger relentlessly, stopped her assault and observed the unfolding situation.
That was when it happened.
Crack—
A violent swirl of sand and dust momentarily obscured my vision.
Yerim shielded her face with her hand and turned away.
Whoooooosh—
As the wind subsided, she slowly lowered her arm to look.
That’s when she saw me standing motionless, staring straight ahead.
“Tae-woo?”
Yerim called out softly, observing what appeared to be me lost in a trance.
But I wasn’t hallucinating.
Just as I had witnessed the North Korean soldiers at the Jangdok Training Facility, I was now discerning why the Old Woman Ghost was here.
I slowly turned my head to survey my surroundings.
I was standing in the center of the open field within the Junkyard—the same place as before.
The difference was that Yerim was nowhere to be seen, a thick fog blanketed everything, and my smart glasses had gone completely dark, displaying no UI whatsoever.
By pure instinct, I recognized that this place was ‘different’ from the Junkyard where I had been with Yerim moments ago.
Shhhhhhh—
From the darkness, a woman in her seventies wearing a two-piece outfit slowly materialized.
Not the chaotic, violent form the ghost had displayed earlier, but her appearance exactly as she had been in life.
As I looked at her, the woman approached and returned the blood-sealed blade to me.
Then she slowly opened her mouth.
“I have one request. Could you grant it?”
Her voice came through with remarkable clarity.
I gazed at her face for a moment, then nodded.
“There’s a photograph somewhere here—one my son’s family and I took together. No matter how hard I search, I can’t find it. Could you help me locate it? I can’t remember my son’s face anymore.”
The moment I heard those words, the backstory of the Junkyard ghost came flooding back to me.
A family of four had died in a traffic accident, and the shocked driver—her son—had grieved so deeply that his mother fell ill and passed away after a year of suffering.
I understood now why she had returned to the Junkyard and wandered there—she had been searching for that photograph all along.
“If you find that for me, I’ll leave to meet my son. Please, I’m asking you.”
The woman in her seventies spoke.
I nodded.
Whoooooosh—
Another gust of cold wind swept through, and in an instant, the white fog and the woman in her seventies vanished without a trace.
I closed my eyes for a moment, and when I opened them, I found myself back at the open field of the junkyard where I had been battling the spirits just moments before.
Yerim, who had vanished earlier, was now standing beside me.
“Kim Tae-woo. Are you alright? Did you perhaps see a hallucination?”
She asked with a bewildered expression.
I slowly shook my head and checked my Ghost Radar.
The smart glasses UI, which had been completely unresponsive moments ago, had returned to its normal state.
“Kim Tae-woo?”
Yerim asked again.
“I’m fine. I’m fine.”
After saying this, I turned my body toward the blue dot on the Ghost Radar.
There, discarded vehicle parts lay piled high after scrapping.
In the midst of countless large and small components stacked so densely that there was no room to squeeze a single person through, a faint blue dot was emanating light.
I immediately began rummaging through the parts.
“Kim Tae-woo. Kim Tae-woo. What are you doing?”
Yerim grabbed me in alarm and spoke.
But I didn’t answer and frantically began digging through the parts.
Seeing this, Yerim felt a chill run down her spine.
She thought I had either fallen into a hallucination or been possessed by a spirit.
“Kim Tae-woo. Kim Tae-woo, Chief? Kim Tae-woo, Chief!!”
No matter how many times Yerim called out, I gave no response.
But I wasn’t deaf either.
I heard everything Yerim was saying clearly.
It was just that finding that photograph quickly seemed more important than explaining at length, so I didn’t answer and simply rummaged through the parts like a madman.
“Kim Tae-woo.”
Yerim called out one last time and aimed her gun at me.
If I had been possessed, I could swing a blade at her at any moment.
But still—I continued rummaging through the parts.
Seeing this, Yerim took a step back and decided to observe the situation for a moment longer.
Of course, even as she did, her gun barrel remained trained on me.
Clatter, clatter, clatter—
Large and small parts rolled across the ground, and my hands became not just covered in grease but also cut by sharp components, blood flowing freely.
But I didn’t stop and continued rummaging through the parts.
Throughout all this—the Old Woman Ghost never appeared.
Yerim found this strange as well.
Then—I managed to find a small acrylic-coated pocket photograph among the parts.
It had been caught between various components, perhaps having hung from the vehicle’s rearview mirror.
I reached in and carefully retrieved the photograph.
Just as black smoke had seeped out when I discovered the documents at the Jangdok Training Facility, black smoke now emanated from this photograph as well.
Inside the blood-stained frame was the image of the Old Woman Ghost I had just seen, along with a middle-aged man and woman, and two children.
As I gazed at that photograph, Yerim slowly approached.
“That Grandmother Ghost was looking for this. That’s why she kept wandering around that place.”
I handed the pocket photograph to Yerim.
Yerim accepted the photo and nodded slowly.
Then she turned her gaze toward me deliberately.
‘What kind of situation is this?’
I had only ever seen me wielding the sword with such elegance, but this was the first time I witnessed me understanding a ghost’s requests and resentments with such clarity, so I couldn’t hide my bewildered expression.
“If we leave this with that Grandmother Ghost in her columbarium, I think she’ll be able to pass on to the afterlife peacefully.”
I stood up from my seat and spoke.
My hands were covered in wounds, but I didn’t seem to feel any pain at all.
In fact, I was so focused on placing this pocket photograph in the Old Woman Ghost’s columbarium that I couldn’t feel pain.
“Shall we head there then?”
I spoke with a smile.
* * *
The next morning.
Through Taesan-dang Mudang, the outsourced contractor who had received the request, I learned the location of the Old Woman Ghost’s columbarium, and Yerim and I moved there right at opening time.
We placed the pocket photograph in front of the burial niche where the Old Woman Ghost was enshrined and observed a moment of silence.
Yerim was bewildered by this exorcism method she had never attempted before, yet she found it rather commendable.
If she had died harboring some resentment, she thought she would be incredibly grateful if someone resolved that grudge for her rather than simply making her vanish.
I felt the expression of the old woman in the pocket photograph before the burial niche shift slightly.
It was as if her ordinary expression had transformed into a peaceful and benevolent smile.
“Don’t you think we should contact the Settlement Team now?”
I was certain that the Grandmother Ghost had disappeared.
However, Yerim couldn’t yet be certain that the Grandmother Ghost had completely vanished.
Of course, while I found the photograph and left the junkyard, I hadn’t sensed anything, so it seemed the ghost had disappeared—but I couldn’t be certain whether this method of exorcism was truly effective.
In any case, at this point, since the ghost was visible neither through spiritual sight nor spiritual intuition, there was no method other than contacting the Settlement Team.
Yerim nodded and picked up her phone to request a field verification from the Settlement Team.
And a few hours later, she received confirmation that the ghost at the junkyard had completely disappeared.
* * *
Yerim and I moved directly to the company and prepared a results report on the junkyard ghost afterservice.
I handed over the footage I had captured with my smart glasses to Yerim, and Yerim wrote a detailed report about what had happened and the exorcism I had conducted, then submitted it.
And a few minutes after the report was submitted, Manager Cha Jun-ho stood in front of his office and called for Yerim.
“Manager Yoon. My office.”
Yerim sprang from her seat like a coiled spring and scurried into the manager’s office.
I glanced toward the manager’s office, worried that there might be some problem with the report I had just submitted.
“About the junkyard field you just submitted.”
Manager Cha Jun-ho asked Yerim as soon as she entered his office.
“Yes, Manager.”
“Excluding those old Wandering Spirits—that Grandmother Ghost was handled by Kim Tae-woo, correct?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“I saw the footage from Kim’s smart glasses, but what exactly happened?”
Cha Jun-ho asked.
The scene recorded through the smart glasses was from Tae-woo’s first-person perspective.
While it confirmed him staining the short blade with blood and throwing it at the ghost, the conversation between Tae-woo and the Old Woman Ghost was not recorded.
All that was captured was Tae-woo staring blankly into empty space, then suddenly rushing into the pile of parts and rummaging through various items.
“To be honest, I’m not entirely sure either. He stained the short blade he always carries with blood and threw it, and that Grandmother Ghost seemed to have been waiting—she surrendered her form. Then the blade struck her, and Kim Tae-woo just stood there dazed for a few seconds, as if he’d fallen into a hallucination.”
“He stood there dazed for a few seconds as if he’d fallen into a hallucination… but you’re certain it wasn’t actually a hallucination?”
“I can’t say for sure. But the moment he came out of it, he immediately started rummaging through the parts and found that pocket photo. He said he’d had a conversation with the Grandmother Ghost.”
Yerim spoke.
Cha Jun-ho nodded.
Based on that sequence of events, it seemed Tae-woo had heard the Old Woman Ghost’s request during those moments when he stood dazed and had simply granted it.
“So he took that photo to the Columbarium where the Grandmother is enshrined and left it there. When I checked with the Settlement Team, the ghost has been completely vanquished, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
Yerim answered.
“That’s interesting.”
Cha Jun-ho chuckled and nodded.
Yerim stood with her hands clasped behind her back, her expression puzzled.
She didn’t fully understand how Tae-woo had performed the exorcism, and Cha Jun-ho’s reaction was equally unfamiliar to her.
“Looking at Yoon Manager’s expression, it seems Kim Trainee has no idea how he made the Grandmother Ghost vanish.”
“Ah, yes. I understand he resolved her resentment, but I’m not sure how it happened.”
“He didn’t vanquish the ghost through force, nor did he push her spirit toward the afterlife. He literally ‘communicated’ with the ghost. He solved the problem by having a conversation with the deceased.”
Cha Jun-ho answered and continued, watching Tae-woo’s gaze on the monitor.
“He’s definitely talented. Despite concerns about the danger from the Ghost Hunting Blade’s will, whether through force or as a ‘medium,’ our company has no one else like him.”
At those words, Yerim nodded with an impressed expression.

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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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