Exorcism Specialist Company: Ghost Soul Trading - Chapter 63

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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 63

The sound flowing from the ghost’s mouth was none other than the National Education Charter.
From 1969 to 1994, it had been recited during school assembly time.
This meant that, just as Yoon Taek-jong had anticipated, this ghost was definitely a student who had attended this school during that era.
Yoon Taek-jong yanked the Blood Crimson Blade embedded in the ghost’s shoulder free.
Black smoke erupted like a fountain from where it had been lodged, instantly engulfing the area around him.
At the same time, his vision was completely cut off.

Fzzzt—

His smart glasses flickered and dimmed as all the UI elements wavered before shutting down entirely.
He gripped the Blood Crimson Blade tightly and focused his mind.
There was no way to know what would happen next or how it would unfold.

Whoooosh—

That was the moment.
A cold breeze swept left and right, then warm air brushed against him.
As the black smoke gradually dispersed, the noisy chatter of students began to fill his ears.
Yoon Taek-jong took a deep breath and looked around.

“Did you finish your homework?”
“I need to go do it. Let me finish my lunch first and get to it.”
“Math is probably going to be really upset.”
“Ugh. I have to do my homework today.”

Students in old-fashioned uniforms began to appear, gathering in small groups as they wandered through the Corridor.
From their attire and the atmosphere of the Corridor, I could immediately discern that this was a school scene from roughly thirty years ago.
I had succeeded in entering the ghost’s memory.
‘Is this also the ability of the Blood Crimson Blade?’
I could now understand precisely how to use the Blood Crimson Blade and what happened when I did.
In that instant, I discovered something bizarre.
All the passing students had featureless faces—completely blank and devoid of expression.
Yet despite this, their trivial conversations reached my ears in perfect clarity.
‘Are they ghosts?’
Even after the black smoke had dissipated, my intuition continued to activate—my spine tingling, my heart racing—but my Ghost Sensor had gone dead, leaving me unable to check the radar.
Because of this, it was difficult to determine clearly whether these beings were ghosts or not.
Of course.
If they possessed appearances as grotesque as the Egg Ghost, I would have to regard them all as ghosts, but if I was truly inside a ghost’s memory, it was possible that these entities couldn’t all be classified as ghosts.
If they were merely ‘nameless classmates’ preserved in the ghost’s memory, I could understand this phenomenon to some degree.

Tap, tap, tap, tap—

That was when it happened.
Among the students, a female student with distinct facial features passed through the Corridor.
As she walked past me, she stared directly at me.
In that moment, I realized she was the Female Student Ghost I had confronted moments before.

Whoooosh—

The Female Student Ghost passed naturally beside me and moved toward somewhere else.
I watched her retreating figure, then quietly followed after her.

Tap, tap, tap, tap—

Crossing through the corridor where countless faceless students passed back and forth—she ascended the staircase.
Tae-woo followed silently behind her up the stairs.
Upon reaching the rooftop, she made her way toward one of the railings.
And there, I encountered a familiar face.
It was the School Janitor, appearing remarkably young.
‘What is this situation?’
What reason could a school student and the janitor possibly have to meet separately on the school rooftop?
No matter how I thought about it, such a thing fell outside Tae-woo’s common sense.
The School Janitor smiled warmly upon seeing the Female Student Ghost.
Yet it seemed he could not see Tae-woo.
And the scene that unfolded was deeply enigmatic.

“Don’t misunderstand what I said before. There’s no need to tell other people about it, is there?”
“That doesn’t make sense. I felt extremely uncomfortable and disgusted.”
“Disgusted? Is that what you say to an adult?”
“If you’re an adult, you should act like one! What were you saying to a student!”
“It’s only because you’re so mature and lovely!”
“That’s enough. I’m going to tell my homeroom teacher.”
“Hey, wait!”

As the Female Student Ghost turned to leave, the School Janitor grabbed her, and a struggle ensued.
In that moment—the girl, pushed back and forth, was suddenly shoved against the railing and fell straight down.

Thud—

A dull sound followed.
The School Janitor glanced down over the railing, his face draining of color, and hurriedly rushed downstairs.
Whoosh—
He passed directly through Tae-woo, who stood witnessing the scene.
“The School Janitor was a murderer?”
I recalled the image of the Female Student Ghost clinging to the School Janitor’s back.
But how could a murderer possibly work at a school?
Tae-woo quickly gathered his thoughts and began running after the School Janitor.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud—
The School Janitor ran frantically toward the School Courtyard Rear and approached the fallen girl.
Standing there was Yoon Taek-jong, a teacher with a youthful appearance.

“What on earth is going on here?”
“W-w-w-well, I was talking to her and this… this happened…”
“That’s enough. Regardless of what happened, there’s no benefit in letting this blow up. Let’s handle it this way. We’ll say she threw herself off due to despair over her grades.”
“D-despair over her grades?”
“Or would you prefer I say you pushed her and killed a student? What would that do to the school’s reputation? It would only make things worse. Let’s call it suicide from academic despair. I’ll note in her school record that she was struggling due to her grades during counseling.”
“Th-thank you, sir.”

That was when it happened.
The fallen female student moaned—she wasn’t dead yet.

“Ugh… Kgh…”

As her fingers twitched, the School Janitor flinched in alarm.

“W-we need to get her to a hospital right away—”
“—Why would we take her to a hospital? If this student lives, you’re going to prison. And the school’s reputation will be ruined anyway. Don’t say such ridiculous things.”

Yoon Taek-jong glanced around, then picked up a wooden club and stood before the collapsed female student.
A flash—
He raised the club high and brought it down hard.
Crack—
With a dull thud, I closed my eyes once, then opened them to find myself back in the Music Room.
The Smart Glass UI had returned to normal as well.
“Gasp!”
I, who had been pressed against the wall and lifted up, lost my balance and fell forward.
The Female Student Ghost who had been strangling me had vanished.
“Damn it. Hell. What the—”
I pushed myself up against the wall and checked the Ghost Radar.
The blue dot that had been in the Music Room was completely gone.
The ghost had disappeared.
“Did she ascend?”
That was my first thought, but it seemed unlikely.
Now that I understood exactly what her resentment was—I could tell she wouldn’t leave the school so easily.
That meant after showing me her memories, she had gone somewhere else.
Where exactly, I had no way of knowing right now.
“Those damn bastards. Those fucking bastards.”
Leaning against the wall, I checked the status of Gwichal Sword and Hyeolsu Sword while recalling the School Janitor’s face.
I could now roughly understand why his reaction had been lukewarm when discussing the deceased student, why I’d felt something off about his response.
But what was most shocking was Yoon Taek-jong.
I couldn’t know exactly what state the Female Student Ghost had been in when she jumped, but one way or another, it was Yoon Taek-jong who had directly killed her.
That incident had to have occurred at least thirty years ago, so there was no legal way to punish him.
Setting aside issues like statutes of limitation, there was no way physical evidence would still exist after all this time.
“Bastards.”
Tae-u muttered under his breath as he stepped out of the Music Room.
Then, suddenly—a peculiar hypothesis flashed through my mind.
If I substituted the Female Student Ghost for Go Yu-rim, the current situation in which the ghost appeared and the attitudes of Yoon Taek-jong and the School Janitor both made sense.
If that were the case, I couldn’t rule out the possibility that Go Yu-rim had also died at the hands of those two.
It seemed I needed to learn more about what had happened back then.
Tae-u moved toward the staircase to head up to the next floor and called Ji-seok.
Since Ye-rim would be working in a different field, Ji-seok would be the only one sitting in front of a computer.
As I dialed, I worried whether he might curse at me.

[Yeah. Kim Chief. What’s up.]

Ji-seok answered the phone in a businesslike tone.
“Director. I’m sorry to bother you, but would it be alright if I asked for one favor?”

[A chief still in probation asking the director for a favor?]

“I apologize. I had nowhere else to turn.”

[Well. We’re one team, so I have to be as understanding as the sea. Yeah, what is it?]

“Could you search for information about the suicide incident involving Go Yu-rim at Mando High School?”

[It’s easier to investigate that sort of thing beforehand before you head out.]

“Yes, I apologize.”

[Hmm. Let me see.]

Ji-seok grumbled while searching, the sound of keyboard clicks audible.

[Looks like it was around when last year’s September mock exam ended. A female student jumped from the Annex Building at Mando High School and died. The reason given was despair over grades. No suicide note was found. The School Janitor discovered her. That’s all that was reported. There are some comments on community forums saying she wasn’t the type to do something like that.]

“Is it possible to search for an incident from about thirty years ago?”

[Thirty years ago? Goodness. Hold on a moment.]

“Back then, there was no internet, so I’m afraid there might not be any materials available….”

[Our company’s database has all the scanned copies of old newspapers. If you search through there, you might find something.]

“Oh, is that so?”
Tae-woo raised his eyebrows as he asked.

[Yeah. Isn’t our company in the business of finding dead people? We often need to look up old newspaper articles, so we’ve collected past newspapers and digitized them all.]

It was welcome news.
If so, I would be able to find press materials about that Female Student Ghost who died thirty years ago.

[Hmm. This should be it. I’ll send you the scanned file. Next time, look into things before you go on a business trip.]

“Yes, understood. Thank you very much.”
Tae-woo answered respectfully and checked his phone.
There was one message from Ji-seok.

–
Mando High Female Student Dies by Jumping Within School Grounds
Kim (Female Student), a second-year student at Mando High School (17), jumped from the 4th Floor of the school building after finishing classes on the afternoon of the 2nd, fell into a flowerbed in the School Courtyard Rear, and died in the accident.
The first person to discover the incident was School Janitor Park, who said, “While on patrol, I heard a loud thud from the School Courtyard Rear and rushed over to find Kim lying face-down on the ground.”
According to the teacher in charge, Yoon, Kim had excellent grades normally, but after her midterm exam scores dropped recently, she said in a conversation with this newspaper that “studying is pointless.”
–

Since it was an old newspaper, there were Chinese characters scattered throughout, but I could quickly understand what the content meant.
Just as I had seen, it seemed quite possible that the School Janitor and Yoon Taek-jong had manipulated the incident.
And the fact that Go Yu-rim’s case was also discovered first by the School Janitor seemed like some kind of mysterious intersection.
Tae-woo could instinctively sense that there was a high possibility that both of them were involved in Go Yu-rim’s death as well.
“I should search for that Female Student Ghost again first.”
Tae-woo murmured.
Then he shook his head.
“No. Let me finish searching the Main Building and Annex Building first.”
Although the Female Student Ghost had shown aggression, the scene revealed when I inserted the Blood Sword was clearly something that ghost had intentionally shown me.
If so, there must have been a reason for it.
A strange sense of trust arose that if I proceeded as planned, I would be able to uncover the truth and find the ghost.

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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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