Chapter 1
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 0
Chapter Title: Exorcist Association, Commission
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Exorcists exist.
They're not exactly publicized far and wide, but they're not shrouded in such deep secrecy either.
Most people think of exorcists as shamans or spirit mediums who banish ghosts, and while that's not entirely wrong, it's just a tiny fraction of their actual duties.
The true enemies that exorcists target are beings known as yokai.
They spawn in hidden places, feeding on negative human emotions to grow, eventually taking physical form and wreaking havoc on those around them.
And that havoc isn't purely physical. Sure, some yokai cause direct physical harm, but even that's just one means to an end—their goal lies elsewhere.
They damage the souls that govern human emotions.
They drain people's souls dry or implant traces within them, forever siphoning off various emotions and energies.
Those marked by yokai gradually fall under their influence, consumed by the negative emotions they stir.
As a result, victims might lose all will to live and become utterly listless, fly into uncontrollable rages at every little thing, suffer mental breakdowns, or become hopelessly addicted to depraved urges, ruining their lives beyond repair.
There are ways to heal souls scarred like this.
The Exorcist Federation even has a dedicated department solely for soul restoration.
But it's hardly efficient—more of a stopgap measure than a real fix.
Healing one soul takes a ton of time and effort.
And even then, victims often fall prey to the same yokai again.
That's why the most effective treatment is to hunt down and exorcise the yokai responsible.
Eliminating the yokai that scarred the soul prevents the wound from worsening.
After that, as long as nothing major interferes, the soul mends on its own—like a well-cleaned wound healing over time with fresh skin forming underneath.
So exorcists track down these root causes—the yokai—and crush them outright.
That's the daily grind for Gyeol Ryeong, an exorcist with the Exorcist Association.
Today, goddamn it, I got stuck dealing with another shitty ordeal.
Sexual harassment in broad daylight, no less. And from some sleazy old creep who reeked like he hadn't showered in weeks.
I got revenge on the spot, sure. But that doesn't erase the disgusting memory seared into my brain.
"That's why I keep telling you to just take a taxi."
In a meeting room at the Exorcist Association.
As I vented about the nightmare of getting here, that's the response I got from the Manager.
Taxi. Taxi, she says.
God, I'd love to. Hell, it'd be even better if I could just drive myself.
But there's a massive roadblock.
"I can't afford it. If you'd reimburse it as expenses, I'd happily cab it everywhere..."
"No can do."
"Come on...! You're summoning me to the Association...!"
"Then rejoin the Association proper. We can't cover expenses for freelance contractors."
I swallowed a groan.
Circumstances had forced me to drop Association membership and go fully freelance.
Sure, going back on payroll meant perks, but nothing's free—you have to deal with a bunch of annoying obligations too.
Seeing I had zero intention of returning, the Manager looked utterly exasperated.
"I mean, Ryeong, you're loaded—why skimp like this?"
"Gotta save while the money's flowing. You know how I am. ...Plus, that mess from before has me scraping by right now."
The Manager shook her head with a sigh. "Self-inflicted wounds."
My ass could get groped a hundred times over and not wear thin—it's free real estate. Taxi fare? Not so much.
Not that I'm volunteering to cover it gratis, mind you.
"More importantly, showing up to HQ in sweats? We don't have a strict dress code given our line of work, but this is taking 'casual' way too far."
"You know my situation."
"...I get it, I do..."
The Manager listening to me now was one of the few in the know about my plight, so she grasped it without needing details.
"A 'Succubus Curse,' of all things. You really landed yourself in a headache."
Just like she said, I was under the Succubus Curse.
It started about a year ago on a freelance gig: a succubus extermination request.
A bunch of us exorcists, me included, threw everything we had at it. We nearly had the damn thing cornered on death's door... but it slipped away.
Most of the team back then still hasn't recovered enough to return to duty. And me? That succubus left its curse etched into my very being.
For the first couple weeks after it hit, I was a total wreck, barely able to stand. But then I bounced back fine, so I figured it was no big deal.
Until two weeks ago, when the dormant curse activated out of nowhere and turned my life upside down.
I woke up one morning, and boom—I'm a woman. And not just that: just existing around me stirs up lewd thoughts in everyone indiscriminately.
I can tone it down some by covering more skin, but folks overflowing with lustful energy like that creep today? No resisting them.
It's a total pain in every conceivable way.
This body that enchants people left and right is bad enough, but my gender swap wrecked my ID situation too.
Luckily, the Association knows enough, and plenty here can identify folks by their souls.
They verified it was me somehow, but the curse shows no signs of lifting or reverting me anytime soon.
"You should've gotten it checked and lifted right away back then. Why let it fester into this mess?"
"...I had no choice. Exorcisms cost money too."
"Seriously, what's the point of pinching pennies like this?"
"For my dreams. For a comfy retirement."
For my dreams. For a cushy retirement. Every penny saved counts toward that.
But after my body changed, I shelled out for the priciest exorcism course available—way more than originally quoted, by factors of tens...
And even after burning all that cash, the curse didn't budge. If anything, it feels stronger. Utterly infuriating.
"Anyway, tell me about the request. That thing you mentioned—is it true? A way to break this curse?"
This accursed thing that wrecked my life and derailed my retirement plans.
She said there was a way to lift it, so here I am.
Accepting my plea, the Manager set a tablet and a few documents in front of me.
Provisional Name [Mysterious Fog].
That's the target of this commission.
About half a year ago, a district on the outskirts of Seoul got engulfed in fog of unknown origin.
It started small, blanketing just one neighborhood. But over time, it swelled to swallow an entire adjacent mountain.
If it were ordinary fog, the Exorcist Association wouldn't have gotten wind of it.
But traces of the unique energy emitted by yokai were detected in it—faint, but unmistakable.
And inside the fog-shrouded village, people were vanishing without a trace.
All young women.
And bizarrely, no one around them noticed they were gone. Not even family who saw them daily.
We only learned of the disappearances because an Association employee's relative lived in the area.
They called one day: family member missing. Yet the family had no clue and had even forgotten the person existed.
Thankfully, this 'cognitive distortion' only messed with memories—official records and data remained intact.
We cross-referenced databases and pinned down dozens of missing young women. Only two cases had been reported by aware relatives.
"Dozens gone, and it's only B-rank extermination..."
I muttered while flipping through the docs. The Manager adjusted her slim-framed glasses and filled in the gaps.
"No major societal impact yet. The distortion was thorough enough to minimize ripple effects. No news coverage despite the numbers. Neither the Association nor the authorities see it as urgent."
That said, she added,
"B-rank is just priority level. Difficulty could be A+ or higher. Considering the fog's expansion, the distortion mechanics, and the intelligence behind it all, a high-level yokai is definitely involved."
The Association had already dispatched a few exorcists.
None have returned. Their survival's confirmed somehow, but their location and status inside the fog? Zero intel.
Which jacked up the payout considerably.
I glanced at the reward on the papers and let slip an impressed "Oh..."
This could more than cover what I blew on that top-tier exorcism.
No way this is standard B-rank pay.
"A few sponsors hopped on for this one. Relatives of the missing, or folks hit hard business-wise by the fog."
That's not all, though.
I took the job because it promised a shot at lifting this damn Succubus Curse.
"One sponsor's a bigwig for the Association. So they sweetened the pot—not with cash, but access to the 'Special Storage Vault' that's been locked tighter than Fort Knox."
The Manager powered up the tablet and pulled up a gallery of photos.
A catalog of artifacts hoarded by the Association.
Items never released publicly, no matter the bribe. Association-exclusive tools.
She tapped one, enlarging it on screen.
A massive, teardrop-shaped gem.
This was it—
"'Sea Dragon's Tear.' A relic that can lift any curse—three uses total. Succeed on this, and on top of the base pay, you get one shot with it. Tempting enough for our Special Grade Exorcist Gyeol Ryeong?"
No way it wasn't.
Even top exorcists couldn't crack this curse. Nothing else came to mind.
In the end, with a casual "What the hell, I'll do it," I signed on.