The Ex-Hero Is Too Good at Exorcism

100.

“… A curse agency?”

I asked while looking through the case file Seo In-na passed over.

Then Seo In-na let out a small sigh.

“okay. Another annoying case came in. Look at this.”

What she held out was her smartphone.

An icon floated there.

“What is this?”

“This is the app used for the crime. It’s what the curse agency sowed. From the outside, it’s an ordinary communication app, but if you go inside, there’s a page where you can request a curse. Using that, they use this app to receive curse requests and execute them.”

Seo In-na directly accessed the curse request page.

Then, there was a box to enter the name, age, address, etc.

At the bottom, along with the send button, there was even a friendly explanation that it would take about a week for the curse to take effect.

“If requested… Are you getting paid?”

“of course. However, tracking is not easy. The payment method is coin, that is, virtual currency.”

When Seo In-na pressed the send button, a billing information window appeared immediately.

There was really a request for a specific coin.

“They are smart guys. Maybe that’s why, this acting curse was older than I thought. The app was uploaded to the market half a year ago. But I also found a site that seems to have been used before that. And that site has been around for over three years.”

3 years.

It was a time when more than a thousand people could curse even if they cursed only one person a day.

“There must be many victims?”

“There are many numbers. It’s to the point where we haven’t figured it all out yet. But most don’t worry too much. Originally, curses that humans use are not very effective.”

“Is the culprit’s sorcery level going down?”

“Rather than that… It is because of the nature of the curse.”

Seo In-na clicked her tongue and continued.

“A curse is a power that spirits and monsters use, and it’s not something humans can use. Among them, the deadliest thing is that the curse always comes back to the caster who uses it. If you want to use a curse that kills the other person, you must be prepared to die as well.”

Does it mean that you will be harmed as much as you curse the other person?

It was a heavier penalty than expected.

So I asked a question.

“But do you make a business out of it?”

Doesn’t that mean that if you break the arm of the person who was commissioned by the curse, your own arm will also be broken?

If you do that, money isn’t the problem, but the person who curses you won’t be able to last even a month.

“Actually, that’s where the real problem starts. These guys know that too, and are deliberately leaving part of the ceremony to the client.”

“Leave it?”

“okay. For a simple example… You know about the cursed doll? A method of cursing that making a doll out of straw and driving nails into the doll makes the nailed body part painful.”

I nodded.

Rather than a curse that I learned after becoming an exorcist, it was a very popular method.

“These guys put a curse on the doll, but they don’t execute it, and they attach a sealing amulet right before that. And send the doll to the client, write the name on the amulet and instruct him to burn it. In that way, the subject of the curse is changed from the culprit to the client.”

In the end, it was a criminal method that turned even the perpetrator, the client, into a victim.

“If you handle it like that, the recoil that actually goes to the culprit is greatly reduced. On the contrary, the client will be covered with the recoil of the curse as it is. So there is no limit to their curses.”

“Are you hiding the fact that the client will be harmed by doing so?”

“No, that’s not it. The curse also returns as karma to the person who requested it. It’s clearly written in the precautions they put out.”

“… … ”

In the end, it meant that the requester applied for a curse request even though he knew that he was suffering damage.

At first glance, it seems like a ridiculous thing that anyone would want to apply for.

For some, even that could be a sweet temptation.

Seo In-na smiled bitterly.

“Because there are plenty of people who want to kill someone they resent, even if it means destroying themselves. Usually someone who has nothing to lose.”

“That’s right.”

I nodded.

Then, Seo In-na’s words continued.

“Of course, the damage from the curse wasn’t serious until recently. Maybe he was hiding himself, at least not to the point of killing people. But not anymore. There was a death, and it was an extremely blatant death.”

“Are you explicit?”

“okay. A month ago, these guys changed the billing method. You can choose the strength of the curse depending on the billing amount.”

As Seo In-na said, several curses were listed in the app.

From something small to causing a fever or having a nightmare.

As the billing amount increased, curses such as crippling or even causing death were seen.

“… It’s more expensive than you think.”

“okay. That’s why most of them start off with trivial curses. It’s not expensive, and it’s less guilty. But the problem is the people who have been led to believe that this curse is real. Eventually, when the grudge deepens, you will be asked for the next level of curse.”

Listening to Seo In-na, I searched for information inside the app.

The more severe the curse, the more rapidly the billing amount went up.

In the end, the death came out means that someone gave the money and applied for a request.

But they didn’t even try to hide it.

Rather, the face of the deceased was hung up like an advertisement, and they were even promoting their own curse.

“Anyway, I can’t leave it like this. We need to find it quickly and punish it.”

“I guess so. however… Are these all clues?”

There is only one clue in the case file and Seo In-na’s explanation.

They were the victims of the incident.

Some of them were hospitalized in the police hospital for Haeju, so it wasn’t difficult to meet them.

Those people were people who didn’t even know the existence of the curse app.

I can’t say it’s a very certain clue.

But at my words, Seo In-na smiled strangely.

“Did it just go to you? Rumors have already spread within the police that Inspector Kang is good at finding things like this.”

“… … ”

yeah i knew it

This is why it’s good to only go halfway between the military and work.

However, it was just a belated regret anyway, so I closed the case file without saying anything.

Now was the time to move.

“And the additional dispatch… Grandpa Tae-soo! I will go with Inspector Kang today.”

“I’m going to make this old man do something nasty again.”

And what stuck to me was Kwon Tae-soo.

I moved with him to the police hospital where the victims were.

The arrow of the newly created quest was also pointing in the direction of the police hospital.

After a while.

“Room 301 is next… Oh, this way.”

I was on my way to the victim’s hospital room, which the nurse confirmed.

Seeing me like that, Kwon Tae-soo, who had been quietly following me, opened his mouth.

“You don’t have as much income as you thought.”

A total of 6 victims are hospitalized in this hospital.

The six people were hospitalized in different hospital rooms, and the person visiting this time was the fourth victim.

I couldn’t get any clue from the three victims I’ve already met.

Even so, the existence of the curse could not be openly told to them as ordinary people.

So I had to come up with excuses, such as saying that I came because there was a circumstance that someone intentionally gave hallucinogens to the victims suffering from nightmares.

Since he avoided talking about exorcism like that, it wasn’t easy to even ask him a question.

“I can’t help it. Let’s keep going.”

Kwon Tae-soo seemed to think that he was struggling in vain, but I didn’t feel too nervous.

Because the arrow was pointing to this hospital.

That meant, after all, that some of these victims had clues to the next step.

“The name… Is it Shin Jeong-seop?”

The victim was a man in his early 30s.

The effects of the curse were severe fever and hallucinations.

Compared to other victims, the degree of curse was stronger, and the curse started 3 weeks ago, so he was the most recently cursed person.

I opened the door to the hospital room and went inside.

In the 4-person room, only Shin Jeong-seop was lying on the bed.

“excuse me. Shin Jeong-seop, are you right?”

“uh… yes. That’s right.”

While he was fiddling with his smartphone, he gave me an annoyed look for a moment, but his eyes immediately changed when he realized that I was wearing a police uniform.

In response, I showed him my police ID and told him why I had come.

This time, the repertoire was the same as before.

It’s not just an illness that made you sick and hallucinating.

It was said that it was caused by some kind of poison, and that someone might have intentionally administered it.

“that is… Is that true?”

Shin Jeong-seop said that as if he couldn’t believe it.

But the police uniform I was wearing gave plausible credence to the nonsense.

“There is such a circumstance and we are currently investigating. So I’d like to ask you a few questions. Are you okay?”

“Ah, yes. You see.”

“Then first… Your symptoms started on Tuesday three weeks ago, right?”

“yes.”

“Have you ever received drinks or food from strangers at the time?”

“that… I don’t think there was.”

I asked him the usual questions a policeman would ask.

And between those questions, one or two, really necessary questions were inserted.

“Then, is there anyone who might have a grudge against Mr. Shin Jeong-seop, or is there an incident that could cause him to hold a grudge?”

“A grudge?”

“yes. Specifically, what happened a month ago?”

The curse came true for Shin Jeong-seop three weeks ago.

So, if it takes a week for the curse to manifest, as stated in the app.

It was said that the perpetrator requested a curse about a month ago.

If anything happened, it was most likely at that time.

“A month ago… ”

At this, Shin Jeong-seop tilted his head, then suddenly frowned.

“Why is that?”

“no… Well, something happened… It’s personal, so I don’t want to talk about it. There was no chance for him to give me medicine anyway. So not him.”

Shin Jeong-seop said firmly.

Whatever happened, it seemed like we hadn’t seen each other since.

But still, my words continued.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“The chemicals are not just bought with money. It is being distributed by an illegal organization, and we are receiving requests for medication using it.”

“Request for medication… ?”

“Simply put, if you give money, you will administer medicine to someone without anyone knowing. Because of that, some of the other victims came into contact with drugs in regular restaurants.”

Only then did Shin Jeong-seop’s eyebrows twitch.

Even if you haven’t met the perpetrator in the meantime, you’ve probably been to a restaurant.

“So please be honest. If you just ignore it, someone might try to administer it again.”

“Again? damn… ”

Shin Jeong-seop’s face crumpled at my words, probably because he was suffering from the curse.

It was worth it if I had been suffering from unexplained high fever and hallucinations for three weeks.

After a moment of silence, he slowly opened his mouth.

“that… One of my university classmates is Han Seong-yeol.”

As he said that, he revealed the identity of the suspicious person to me.

I heard that Shin Jeong-seop and Han Sung-yeol were close friends.

It seemed that Shin Jeong-seop stole the lover Han Seong-yeol was dating a month ago.

I kind of hate to tell you.

Perhaps because of this, Shin Jeong-seop knew Han Seong-yeol’s cell phone number as well as his home address.

“… Well, that’s how it happened.”

“All right. Then take good care of yourself.”

Having obtained the necessary information, I immediately left the hospital room.

And as soon as the door to the hospital room closed,

“No, to touch a woman who is dating a close friend. What kind of bastards are there?”

Kwon Tae-soo, who had been quiet, protested.

However, I wasn’t very interested in other people’s love stories, so I checked the arrows first.

An arrow that has changed direction.

In other words, as much as the clues he got from the man, it meant that they were useful enough.

“Let’s go here first. It’s near Seoul, so it’s not that far.”

“Isn’t Inspector Kang okay with seeing a guy like that?”

“What do you care about? In the end, the woman who was his lover also followed him because she liked him better.”

“her… Say goodbye, say goodbye.”

Kwon Tae-soo clicked his tongue as he said that.

However, to talk about the end of the world, such a fight of love was too common.

At least, it’s a level that appears even in legends and myths.

“Let’s go faster than that. Even this person named Han Seong-yeol is not in a normal condition.”

And we arrived at Han Seong-yeol’s house in less than an hour.

It was an old villa.

Standing in front of the door of the house, I looked back at Kwon Tae-soo.

“You don’t answer the phone?”

Kwon Tae-soo nodded at my question.

He tried to call the number Shin Jung-seop gave him from earlier, but Han Sung-yeol was not thinking of answering.

So we rang the doorbell on the front door.

But still, the door doesn’t even open.

When you want to be away from home

“Ahhh… ”

Moaning in pain could be heard throughout the house.

Was it correct too?

If Han Seong-yeol was really the client of the curse, he too would be suffering the same as Shin Jeong-seop.

Maybe it’s hard to stay sane.

“Can you open this?”

So I looked at the front door and asked Kwon Tae-soo.

All that was visible on the door, which was not even equipped with a common door lock these days, was a key hole and a handle.

“Hey, what are you looking at me for? I’m just saying it’s normal. But that’s illegal trespassing.”

“it’s okay. I take responsibility.”

At my words, Kwon Tae-soo nodded.

So I thought he would open the door with Taoism.

Unexpectedly, he pulled out two very realistic, long, thin iron rods.

Then he deftly put them into the keyhole and began to open the lock.

“Do you carry something like that?”

“This is made with Taoism! And these things I washed my hands a long time ago!”

Did you do it in the past?

And as if his skill was still the same, Kwon Tae-soo quickly unlocked the front door.

When the two rods were turned, the door opened with a click.

We immediately rushed into the house.