Maru took a few photos on the way out. The man in charge of managing the dog cages looked at him with weird eyes.

“You really aren’t a detective, right? You can’t surprise me later by telling me that you’re the cops. People these days are so evil and many people would smile in the front but stab through the back. Of course, I’m not saying that you’re one of those people.”

“That won’t happen, so don’t worry,” Joongjin said in his stead.

The foul stench didn’t end even after they left the greenhouse. The smell felt like it wouldn’t go away even after a shower. That man would probably continue to kick, stab, and pour hot water on those dogs amidst that stench, as a faithful laborer working to earn money.

“Don’t you sometimes think that the world might have been a healthier place than it is now if violence was legal and was something that can be traded for money?”

Joongjin seemed to be talking about people’s secret imaginations. Perhaps something like wishing bad luck to fall on other people without actually saying it: from wishing that someone would fall over, to terrible curses that wished for other people’s death by car crashes....