WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 54: Yurim Hotel Exorcism Ritual

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"They're giving in way too easily."

"Right?"

As we left after finishing negotiations with Moon Hakjeong, the Great Unification Church Leader, we went over the deal we had made with them.

"The total price is ten billion won, with one billion as the deposit."

"They said we can transfer the deposit by the end of today... So we're buying the hotel for ten billion won."

"Moon Hakjeong bought Yurim Hotel for thirty billion won. Even considering its debts, it was a pretty large hotel. At that price, he's practically giving it away."

Apparently, Yurim Hotel had originally been worth over one hundred billion won.

That was because of the sauna facilities built around the natural hot spring water that bubbled up from underground.

Then the hot spring water became contaminated, ruining the place and cutting its value down to a quarter of what it was.

"He must've known it was a dragon node when he bought it... He probably tried to deal with it, but it's already been a year. The fact that they still haven't reopened means..."

"They couldn't solve it, right?"

The Great Unification Church Leader wasn't some sucker. He wouldn't buy an abandoned hotel for thirty billion won and resell it for ten billion.

The reason was obvious. They hadn't been able to solve the problem.

"It feels like we're taking on a pile of unsellable stock."

"He's the head of the country's biggest cult. He wouldn't knowingly take a loss. Just what kind of evil spirit has kept them from resolving this until now..."

"But doesn't that mean we'd make a killing if we just deal with the evil spirit?"

We were taking over a hot spring hotel that had originally been worth one hundred billion won for ten billion.

By simple math, that was a tenfold profit. Compared to what the Great Unification Church paid for it, we would still make three times our money back.

"That's right. Which means it'll be that dangerous and difficult."

The Great Unification Church wasn't stupid. If they could solve it, they would've done so long ago and reopened the hotel.

The fact that they were offering it at such a massive discount meant the job was that dangerous.

"But, Pastor Go."

"Yeah?"

"I don't have that kind of money in the first place."

The problem was that I didn't have ten billion won.

"Don't you have some money saved up? You've made quite a bit."

"I made a ridiculous amount, but I bought a house, bought an abandoned factory, renovated three bathrooms, and paid for Eight-Foot Sister's ammunition. My cash got cut down to a quarter of what it was."

"You have been spending a lot lately."

I still had around 1.5 billion won left, though.

"Don't you have anything you can sell quickly?"

"My parents' house, but even that won't come close."

"Hmm..."

Come to think of it, there was something else we could sell.

"Eight-Foot Sister has Benkei's Iron Staff. They said it could fetch four billion won if we sold it..."

【Devour?!】

Eight-Foot Sister flinched.

"Eight-Foot Sister, now that you have Magdalene's Chainsaw, don't you think you can do without Benkei's Iron Staff?"

【Devour!】

Eight-Foot Sister pulled the iron staff out of Gari's mouth and hugged it tightly to her chest.

Yeah, we couldn't sell that.

"If it comes to that, I can lend you the money. How about we buy it together?"

"Huh? You, Pastor Go?"

"Yeah. Hmm... It'd be a little difficult with just my personal assets, but I think I could gather the money if I brought in a few people..."

Pastor Go fell into thought.

"Ah, I'm not offering to lend you that much just out of kindness. If this works out, I think it'll be a pretty successful investment."

"You're surprisingly interested in money."

"It cost quite a lot to make Magdalene's Chainsaw... It's custom-made by hand, from start to finish..."

Including the labor costs for making consecrated rounds, he had apparently been short on cash lately.

"I'll think about it."

"Well, that's only if we successfully banish the spirit and prove the Great Unification Church Leader wrong."

Still, there was something the Great Unification Church Leader had overlooked.

We had a super-sugoi Great Heavenly Scribe on our side.

* * *

The front entrance of Yurim Hotel was open.

It seemed that even the Great Unification Church, which had bought the hotel, wasn't maintaining it. The moment we opened the door, a desolate sight greeted us.

Dust lay thick on the glass doors, and the revolving door had rusted over and stopped halfway open.

The lobby, once part of a thriving hotel, was quiet enough to make me shiver.

"Even if we buy the hotel, we'll have a mountain of work to do."

"We'll have to call in professionals and have the whole place cleaned. Well, some of the members of our church run cleaning companies."

Oh, so this was when everyone kept it in the family.

Come to think of it, churches used businesses run by their members for things like pastors' robes and choir uniforms. Even when they went to Holy Spirit revival meetings or camps, they used businesses run by church members.

The businesses operated by churches even gave priority to young church members when hiring...

And pastors arranged marriages for people...

What the hell, our church was amazing.

I was twenty-six.

For the sake of my future, I should stay on Pastor Go's good side.

"Yohan, can you smell anything?"

"Yes. It's overwhelming. Though it could just be because no one's cleaned this place."

Since my spiritual scent had opened up, my sense of smell had become much sharper than before.

If I walked around the neighborhood, I could find most evil spirits without much trouble.

The problem was that my ordinary sense of smell had improved too, making me sensitive to odors in all kinds of ways.

Sensitive enough that I couldn't tell the smell of rotten food apart from the smell of a rotten demon?

"Let's find the dragon node first."

Just as we were about to head inside together, noisy voices rang out from outside.

"This must be the place."

"Such sinister energy is pouring out. This is no ordinary location."

A group wearing Taoist robes and shamanic clothing entered one after another. There was even a monk.

"Hm? It seems we have company."

"Well, we couldn't have been the only ones to notice it."

There was one monk, one Taoist, and one shaman.

The moment they entered, they recognized Pastor Go.

"Isn't that Pastor Go from Holy Temple Church?"

"You know me?"

"If you don't know the vanguard of Holy Temple Church, you're not part of this world."

The large monk pressed his palms together and dipped his head slightly.

"This humble monk is Hyeun."

"I am Taoist Cheongmyeong."

"I'm Yeonhwa."

"I'm Go Jincheol. This friend is Gari Bodhisattva."

Pastor Go hid my real name.

Unlike Pastor Go, who was famous in the industry, it was probably better for me to stay anonymous.

"By the way, what brings all of you here?"

"Hm? Pastor Go, weren't you here because you saw the request too?"

"A request?"

"The request issued directly by the Great Unification Church Leader. He said he'd hand over Yurim Hotel at a price that was practically free if someone succeeded in banishing the spirits there."

"..."

"..."

Hyeun's words left us wearing the same expression.

This was a double contract... No, multiple parallel contracts.

From the look of it, they thought we were exorcists who had come to snatch Yurim Hotel on the cheap, just like them.

Wariness filled their eyes as if they saw us as competitors.

"It seems whoever succeeds in banishing the spirits first will get the hotel..."

Taoist Cheongmyeong stepped forward.

The wooden sword at his waist looked like something meant for exorcism rites rather than killing.

"What do you say? Shall we work together?"

"Work together?"

Yeonhwa, the female Taoist, opened her fan and hid her expression behind it.

Her face was covered, but she sounded fairly interested.

"The Great Unification Church hasn't been able to resolve this place for over a year. It's a pretty dangerous request. Rather than getting greedy on our own, wouldn't it be better to cooperate and divide the shares?"

"Well... That's not wrong."

"Namu Amitabha. This humble monk also finds that reasonable."

The other two immediately agreed to cooperate.

Considering they agreed the moment it was proposed, it seemed like they had discussed it before coming here.

When I looked to Pastor Go as if asking for his opinion, he shrugged.

"I'm fine with it."

"Hmm... Pastor Go. I know you are an exorcist recognized by the Mysterious Association with an Azure Knot. But I don't think you can handle a request of this scale alone, especially if you're bringing along such a young layperson."

There was a faintly dismissive feeling in Hyeun's gaze as he looked at me.

Taoist Cheongmyeong and Yeonhwa seemed to feel the same way.

"Venerable Hyeun and I are veterans with Red Knots. Miss Yeonhwa is also on the verge of being promoted to Red Knot."

"That's right. Are you questioning our abilities?"

Generally, you started with a White Knot. Once you became a veteran by completing several requests, you received a Red Knot.

Pastor Go had an Azure Knot, which ranked above that.

Now I understood why they all wanted to pull Pastor Go to their side.

"Please don't misunderstand. Church exorcists do things differently from other spirit banishers. Our whole approach is different."

"Hmph! Do you think we don't know the church's plan to take the hotel for itself? Holy Temple Church already has plenty, yet your greed is endless."

Yeonhwa spoke in a sharp, accusatory voice.

Why did we have to listen to this?

Getting annoyed, I held out my hand to Eight-Foot Sister.

【Devour...】

Eight-Foot Sister understood what I meant and handed over the ribbon she used to tie her hair.

Then the knot detached from her spirit body and appeared.

"A Black Knot?!"

"That's impossible! A Black Knot?"

"How can someone so young..."

The three of them each had their own reaction when I brought out the Black Knot.

Pastor Go looked surprised too, as if he hadn't known I had one.

Come to think of it, I'd never shown it to him.

Still, Pastor Go understood what I was getting at.

"Whew. Now you understand, right? We don't need your 'help.'"

"Urgh...!"

"Ahem!"

The three of them could only clear their throats in silence.

* * *

The Black Knot's power was impressive.

It shut up the three people who had dismissed me for being young in an instant, and at the same time, it gave me three annoying cling-ons.

"Um, everyone? Why do you keep following us?"

"Ahem! We simply happen to be going the same way."

"I happened to think we should inspect this side first as well."

"Same here."

Pastor Go and I decided to look through Yurim Hotel's guest rooms.

The smell was coming from every direction, so we couldn't identify a single source. The problem was that the three of them were following close behind us too.

"What should we do? I think they'll follow us all the way."

"I don't think we can stop them... We came to scout the place, so let's not read too much into it."

We couldn't stop them from following us. It wasn't like they were trying to fight, so there was nothing we could do.

In the end, Taoist Cheongmyeong naturally started a conversation among our now-unavoidable group.

"By the way, did you say Gari Bodhisattva? I believe I've heard that dharma name before. You distinguished yourself during the vampire hunt, didn't you?"

"Yeah, well. It's not really a dharma name. I ended up with it while working anonymously."

"Haha, I see. A Black Knot at such a young age is remarkable."

It sounded like praise, but his narrowed eyes made it hard to take at face value.

He had that weasel-like, sinister look about him.

No, judging a person by their face wasn't right either.

As a Christian, I shouldn't let myself fall into that kind of prejudice. Time to reflect.

"Someone who earned a Black Knot at that age must be hiding an extraordinary secret technique. Perhaps an incredible familiar?"

"..."

No wonder he was a Taoist. He was scarily perceptive.

"Haha! I knew it! It seems fortune has favored you! Congratulations! I've never had that sort of fortunate encounter, so I always pray for one to find me."

"Yeah, well..."

Was that encouragement?

"What secret technique do you possess? I'm curious what a Black Knot exorcist's secret technique might be! I've heard rumors that Gari Bodhisattva wiped out vampires and ghouls."

I wondered how to answer his probing question.

Putting Gari and Eight-Foot Sister aside, most of my problems had actually been solved by...

"Holy water?"

"Holy water... you say?"

"Yes. Holy water has saved my life several times."

I casually showed them the bottle of holy water inside my holy armor coat.

It was special holy water in a label-free 500 ml SamXsoo bottle.

One bottle cost a whopping five million won.

It could even melt a gun when used for a blessing sacrament.

At this point, couldn't holy water count as my secret technique?

"Hmm."

When I deliberately showed him the holy water, Taoist Cheongmyeong narrowed his eyes with an unhappy look.

Then he studied the bottle closely before smiling as if he understood.

"As expected of a Black Knot expert. One must keep one's secret technique hidden."

"No..."

I was serious.

Just look at Pastor Go's expression.

His expression said, "That guy melted one hundred and fifty people with holy water."

Still, wasn't it a little harsh to look at me like I was some vicious holy water serial killer?

I'm not that kind of person.

Footnotes:

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