Exorcist.
A job you often hear about, but few have actually met an exorcist. It isn't just that there aren't many people going around talking about evil spirits—when something occult happens, people usually seek out a shaman, not an exorcist.
But what if the shaman you visit declares that you will die no matter what? What if even a fairly renowned shaman can't offer a proper solution? Who do you turn to then?
"Me."
Yi Seoa said.
"I'm a fairly famous exorcist around here. I've even caught evil spirits that shamans gave up on."
"Isn't being famous a bad thing? The Management Bureau will be watching you."
"The Bureau overlooks exorcists. It's the domain of the occult, not the Mystic, to begin with. As long as I don't openly advertise as a magician, there's no problem. If they suspected every exorcist, the truly powerful shamans would have been eradicated long ago."
She had a point. Yi An nodded.
The evening sun was setting in Busan.
The two of them walked down the street and entered a cafe. It was where the client was waiting.
A staff member greeted them, and Yi Seoa checked her phone as she headed up to the second floor. Yi An followed.
Perhaps because it was the dinner hour, the cafe was ambiguously crowded. Still, the second floor was fairly quiet. Only a few college students sat tapping away on laptops.
As soon as she reached the second floor, Yi Seoa looked around, spotted a man trembling unusually hard, and sat across from him. Yi An carefully took the seat beside her.
The man flinched at their sudden appearance. Then, after confirming that the two of them were human, he let out a sigh of relief.
"Mr. Yi Hyeondo? You're the one, correct?"
Yi Seoa asked.
With a gaunt face, Yi Hyeondo nodded.
"Y-yes. That's me."
"Let's get straight to the point. You sent a message saying you entered a haunted house and it felt like a ghost had latched onto you. Could you tell us the details?"
"Ah, understood."
The man's story was as follows.
He had heard rumors that an evil spirit emerged from a house sitting alone deep in the mountains—the most famous haunted house and abandoned building in Busan. He went there with his friends to film content for the internet.
At first, it was nothing special. Like other haunted houses, there were drawings on the walls and incomprehensible characters carved everywhere. The floor was littered with nothing but trash, and—
—but the moment he opened a closet inside the house, everything changed.
"The letters and drawings carved on the wall started m-moving in real time. And they r-revealed the figure of a woman clearly."
A clear paranormal phenomenon.
Yi An thought, taking a sip of the coffee he'd ordered.
"At first, I thought it was a simple prank. B-but my friends who went with me, the moment they saw the suddenly appearing image, they froze like stone. And... and they clawed at their own faces, screaming that they had to become like that drawing."
"Yes. Please continue."
"In the e-end, I had no choice but to drag those two out of the house. But the next day, one of my friends died. Th-the cause was ruled a suicide, they said."
Yi Seoa nodded impassively. It was a reaction that said she had already expected as much.
"The day my friend died, a ghost appeared in my dream. It was the woman from the drawing on the haunted house wall. The ghost stared holes into me from above my bed and threw my friend's head at me. The number 1 was carved on my friend's f-forehead."
"It's an offering."
"Y-yes?"
"A sacrifice, I mean. That evil spirit is killing you and your friends to increase its power. It's only natural when you're dealing with a demon."
Yi Seoa spoke, taking a sip of coffee. The man's face went slack with stupor.
"Th-then...!"
"The number 3 is written on your forehead. You will probably be the third to die. How many people entered the haunted house with you?"
"I-including me, four people in total...."
"Ha. Of all numbers, it had to be four."
Yi Seoa let out a brief laugh.
"They fulfilled every single condition. Two men and two women entered the haunted house. Correct?"
"...! How did you...!"
"How many days ago exactly did your friend die?"
Yi Seoa cleanly ignored Yi Hyeondo's question and spoke. He hesitated for a moment before answering.
"...Six days ago."
"Another one dies tomorrow. I've heard enough."
Clink.
Yi Seoa set down her black coffee cup and leaned her upper body forward slightly. The man flinched as his eyes met her sharp gaze.
"So? What do you want? Demon exorcism? Or escaping the curse?"
"...A-are both possible?"
"If I kill the demon, the curse is lifted too."
"Th-then please exorcise it."
"The fee is six million won. Please make the transfer."
Yi Seoa said with a smile. The man gulped and immediately deposited the hefty sum into Yi Seoa's account.
The transfer was complete.
Yi Seoa poked Yi An's side with her finger and stood up.
"Thank you. The exorcism will be finished tonight, so don't worry and sleep well."
"I-is this really the end?"
"Yes. We'll be going now. If something like this happens again, please come find me."
Leaving those words behind, Yi Seoa left the cafe. Yi An followed after her.
He took a sip of the coffee he'd gotten and opened his mouth.
"Six million won is less than I expected. I heard even average shamans earn ten million won from a single ritual."
"My net profit is higher. I don't have anything to prepare."
Yi Seoa smiled and called a taxi.
She had a point.
The costs for a shamanic ritual start with fruit and stack up with all sorts of supplies. You need people too, and you have to rent a ritual hall.
On the other hand, Yi Seoa didn't need any of that. With nothing but her own body, she could summon and kill evil spirits or whatever.
Her efficiency and net profit were absurdly high. It was no wonder she had made exorcism her profession. If she could pull in at least six million won per case, it was easy to understand why she had decorated her workshop so lavishly.
'Maybe I should try being an exorcist too.'
A thought that suddenly crossed his mind. But Yi An shook his head inwardly.
To do exorcism work, Yi An had absolutely no talent as a shaman.
Even if he had the means to catch an evil spirit, he wouldn't be able to find ones that had intentionally hidden. He couldn't grab them by the hair and drag them out like Yi Seoa, so the amount he earned wouldn't be as impressive as hers.
'First, I should check out the request from that place called Cartel, then think about it.'
While he was thinking, the taxi Yi Seoa called arrived. The taxi immediately set off toward their destination.
As befitting a Busan taxi, it reached the vicinity of the haunted house much faster than the estimated arrival time. The two paid the fare and climbed the mountain, standing right in front of the haunted house.
The haunted house was already collapsing. A small brick house that was questionable to even call a house. It was a wonder that such a house existed in this day and age, but since it was here, there was no doubt about it. Yi An gripped his grimoire and flipped through the pages with a rustle.
"I'll handle the exorcism. It seems like a fairly strong evil spirit, so I'm going to bottle it."
"Ah, really?"
At her following words, Yi An closed his grimoire.
"Is there nothing I can help with?"
"Nope. Just watch."
"If that's the case."
Yi An put the grimoire back into his bag and followed Yi Seoa, who was walking ahead, into the haunted house.
"……."
The moment they crossed the threshold, a frigid chill swept through their entire bodies. A coldness imperceptible to ordinary people, detectable only by those sensitive to the Mystic.
It seemed the story about an evil spirit being here was true after all. Yi An swallowed a grunt and watched Yi Seoa's back as she strode into the main room.
As if used to such matters, she showed no particular reaction and stood in the center of the room.
The walls were packed full of the drawings Yi Hyeondo had mentioned.
Except it wasn't an ordinary woman's face. A smiling woman's face that was heavily twisted and crumpled was drawn there. The surroundings were red as if painted in blood. A large number '1' written on the ceiling had been crossed out with a slash.
It wasn't hard to infer the meaning. It surely meant they had captured and killed the first sacrifice.
Yi Seoa roughly swept her gaze across the room and muttered.
"It's a stronger demon than I thought."
"Then is exorcism impossible?"
"If it were occult-style exorcism, it would be."
Yi Seoa smiled and pulled out a container of bone powder from inside her coat.
"But I'm a magician."
Click.
The container opened. Yi Seoa reached inside, grabbed a handful of finely ground bone powder, and threw it onto the floor.
With a rustling sound, the bone powder scattered like salt. In the dark, blood-red room, the powder sparkled like starlight.
"O evil spirit that devours humans."
Yi Seoa began chanting. Yi An stepped back, and the guardian spirit that always stood behind her pulled the knife embedded in its forehead and gripped it. The guardian spirit's blood fell onto the bone powder scattered on the floor.
At that moment, the bone powder clumped together and began drawing a circle on the floor. Yi Seoa stared at the circle with cold eyes and stretched her hand to the side.
"I call upon you myself, so shed your shadow and reveal your form."
The guardian spirit lightly slashed Yi Seoa's arm. As the blood fell onto the circle, the rotating bone powder abruptly stopped and began gathering at the circle's center. Immediately after, something was pulled out from below.
[AAAAH!!]
An evil spirit with its hair caught in the bone powder slowly revealed itself from the head up. Yi Seoa skillfully stopped the bleeding and threw a glance at the guardian spirit.
The guardian spirit nodded and swung the knife in its hand.
Squelch!
With a gruesome sound, one of the evil spirit's arms flew through the air. The evil spirit glared with wide eyes and let out a monstrous shriek at Yi Seoa.
[You human child! Have you truly gone mad wanting to die! Very well! I shall personally curse you!!]
Yi Seoa didn't react and put her hand into her coat pocket.
Squelch!
The knife moved once more. One of the evil spirit's legs flew off.
[AAAAH! Why! Why can't I move my body! No, how are you handling me like this in the first place! I will kill you! Tear you to shreds and kill you!]
Squelch!
[Stop! Stop cutting! Are you truly not afraid of the future! Know your place, young girl!]
Squelch! Crack!!
[L-let's talk first, please. We haven't even said a word to each other yet, so why are you cutting off my limbs from the start. Hic!]
With all four limbs severed, the evil spirit collapsed onto the floor and burst into tears.
Only then did Yi Seoa approach and crouch before it.
"Broken?"
[Y-yes?]
She didn't wait for an answer. Yi Seoa immediately opened the lid of a large glass bottle she'd kept at her waist and pressed the opening against the evil spirit's head.
"Get in."
[W-wait, what, ooh, ooogh?! Oooogh! Hooogh!]
Before the evil spirit could finish speaking, its body melted into goo and was sucked into the glass bottle. After confirming the swirling form of the evil spirit inside, Yi Seoa smiled in satisfaction and closed the lid.
Then she turned around with a refreshed expression and approached Yi An.
"The exorcism is done. Let's go back."
"...Yeah."
Yi An smiled bitterly and moved his feet to follow her.
An exorcism that ended much faster than expected.
Deciding to relax a bit, the two chatted idly at a nearby cafe for a while before returning to the workshop.