The Limits of the Law

In farming villages, activity drops off sharply once the sun goes down.

Unless one has specialized facilities or crops, farming is impossible without daylight.

But unlike other farmers, Park Sang-hyun only truly began to move after sunset.

"Hey! Chanar! There's another one out here! Are you going to do your job right or what? Do you not want to get paid today?"

Sang-hyun scowled as he spotted an eel that had escaped from the pit.

A man who had been peeling back a tarp elsewhere rushed over.

"I'm sorry. It wasn't there earlier."

"Excuses, you little bastard! Just pick it up, quick! Do you have any idea how much a single one of these costs?"

Pointing at the eel flopping on the ground, Sang-hyun barked his orders. Chanar nodded and shouted something to the others nearby.

A few men working nearby approached, picked up the eels, and began tossing them back into the pit.

Chanar, the leader of the foreign workers, also busied himself picking up the eels.

However, not many eels made it back into the pit alive. Most of them had been out of the water too long and were already dead.

Scowling once more at the sight, Sang-hyun took his frustration out on Chanar.

"And hey, you bastard! Didn't I tell you to speak Korean? I don't care if you came from China or wherever, you speak Korean in Korea! You're talking in your own language just to curse me behind my back, aren't you?"

"N-no. We don't do that."

"Bullshit, how am I supposed to know? Anyway, you speak Korean, no matter what! Got it?"

"U-understood."

"Understood? Did you just drop honorifics with me? Ha, this bastard is talking down to me now."

"N-no. It was a mistake."

Despite Sang-hyun's relentless nagging, Chanar endured it silently without talking back.

He had to endure it for the sake of his teammates who had left their homelands to work here.

Even though their employer was a complete bastard, he had no intention of throwing away this job, which paid on time and provided room and board.

"So do it right! You know there are tons of foreign workers looking for jobs in Ansan or Gwangmyeong, right?"

"I know. I mean, I know, sir."

"Tsk. If you know, then move faster. The sun set ages ago, and you haven't even pulled off all the tarps yet. Hurry up, feed them, check the stock for tomorrow's shipment, and prep them."

"Yes, sir."

"Pah, tui!"

Sang-hyun spat on the ground at Chanar's response and walked away.

Still in his prime in his forties, he was a rarity in the countryside—young blood. Consequently, many people sought him out once night fell.

"...Sigh."

Chanar watched Sang-hyun leave, dumping all the work on them, and quickly finished giving instructions to his men in their language.

Although Sang-hyun's abusive behavior was irritating, Chanar could understand it to some extent.

"...The numbers have dropped again."

Chanar's face darkened as he inspected the five pits.

Normally, all five pits should have been packed with eels, but empty patches were starting to show.

The loss wasn't massive yet, but the fact that there was a noticeable difference was what mattered.

"Sigh, we'll have to go block it again soon."

Chanar frowned, looking at the distant warehouse where piles of trash were accumulating.

Once they gathered enough waste to block the waterway, they would likely have to go block it once more.

However, Chanar was highly skeptical of this task.

"No matter how I look at it, I don't think that's the cause..."

Sang-hyun managed the eel farm in separate sections.

The shipping containers were for the fry and the eels that hadn't grown enough yet. The marketable eels were all raised ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the open pits, but at some point, their numbers had begun to dwindle.

Sang-hyun believed the reason was the newly constructed waterway. He assumed the constant flow of water was allowing the eels to escape.

Ultimately, under Sang-hyun's orders, Chanar and his men sacrificed their sleep to block the new waterway. Yet, even that failed to stop the eels from disappearing.

In fact, all that hard work had been utterly pointless.

"Even if we block it, it won't last half a day."

The new landowner possessed excellent equipment—enough to clean out the waterway they had barely managed to block in just two to three hours.

How hollow his coworkers had felt seeing that, after working through the night without sleep?

Just thinking about doing the same job again made him want to sigh.

Hearing the sighs of his colleagues echoing from here and there, it seemed they were thinking the exact same thing.

But they had no idea. Even now, the eels were vanishing one by one right under their noses.

*Chomp, chomp.*

"Is it good?"

Dojin asked with a chuckle, hearing the sounds coming from Cheongdung-i's house first thing in the morning.

However, the reply came from an unexpected place.

Kkiyak!

"Oh? Look at you, Cheongdung-i. You've turned into quite the devoted husband, haven't you?"

Kkiyak.

Cheongdung-i, who was keeping watch in front of the house, cried softly as Dojin smiled and stroked his head.

Liking the touch, Cheongdung-i rubbed his beak affectionately against Dojin's hand.

A voice interrupted the two of them.

"Oppa, here you are?"

Hearing the familiar voice and feeling the warmth of arms wrapping around him from behind, Dojin's face melted into a soft smile.

Having just teased Cheongdung-i for being a devoted husband, Dojin was actually far worse.

"Were you looking for me?"

Dojin asked, gently caressing Dohee's hands wrapped around his waist.

"Yeah. I couldn't find you."

"I just came to check on Hwanggeum-i. She seems to be eating way too much lately."

"Oh? Now that you mention it, you're right. Is she eating eel today too?"

Curious, Dohee let go of him and peered into Cheongdung-i's house.

Feeling a brief pang of regret as the warmth left his back, Dojin answered her question.

"Yeah. She's been devouring one as thick as a forearm since this morning."

"Wow. At this rate, she's going to grow as big as a chicken, not a hawk."

Dohee's words made Dojin worry a little too. Her concern wasn't entirely baseless.

Hwanggeum-i really has been eating a lot these past few days.

Even for a bird of prey, there was a limit to how much they could eat.

The eels from Mabong-ri were about the length of a forearm. Normally, eating just one of those a day should have kept her full.

"Maybe it's because the breeding season is coming up?"

"Breeding season?"

"Yeah. I looked it up, and some Honey Buzzards lay eggs around this time of year. Since Cheongdung-i and Hwanggeum-i already have a nest, it wouldn't be strange for them to lay eggs at any moment."

"Ah, that explains it."

Dohee nodded in understanding. She recalled that most females eat much more than usual during their breeding season.

Still, three eels a day is a bit much.

He figured Cheongdung-i probably ate the leftovers. Otherwise, there was no reason for Cheongdung-i, who rarely left the nest except to catch eels, to be putting on weight.

"If you keep gaining weight like this, you won't even fit into your nest soon."

Kkiyak!

Cheongdung-i staggered back as if deeply shocked by Dojin's words.

Watching the bird, Dohee laughed along with Dojin and asked,

"But Oppa, is this the 'punishment' you mentioned before? Cheongdung-i and Hwanggeum-i hunting eels?"

Three eels a day. If Hwindung-i was also hunting them, that meant four or five eels were consistently disappearing daily, which would indeed be a significant loss.

But could this really be called a punishment? Judging by the size of the pits, there had to be at least several hundred eels in there.

In truth, this was the question Dohee had come to ask Dojin.

In response, Dojin smiled and threw out a seemingly random question.

"Dohee, how much do you think a single eel costs?"

"Well, since it's eel, wouldn't it be at least fifty to sixty thousand won?"

"Hmm, it would cost about that much if you ordered it at a high-end restaurant. But if you buy it directly from a farm, it's probably less than thirty thousand won per kilogram."

"Oh? Is it that cheap? But why are you asking?"

"What if someone broke into the farm and stole dozens of eels?"

Dohee stared at Dojin, who kept answering her questions with more questions, and let out a helpless laugh. She realized he was teasing her.

Normally, one might feel slightly annoyed, but Dohee actually liked this side of Dojin. It made it so obvious how much her boyfriend loved her.

"Well, wouldn't they obviously report it to the police? Even if ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠they only took ten, that's a loss of three hundred thousand won."

"What if they took several koi fish worth over a hundred thousand won each, every single day?"

"Oh my gosh, that's an immediate lawsuit! Just a few days of that and you're losing millions of won!"

"Right? But sometimes, even if you report it, the thief can't be caught. Even when you know exactly who the thief is."

"Huh? Is the thief the owner's son? Or... a member of the National Assembly?"

Dojin chuckled at Dohee's guesses.

"No. The thief is a natural monument and an endangered species."

"...What?"

As Dohee tilted her head in confusion, Dojin tapped on his phone and showed her the screen. It was the feed from the CCTV camera he had recently installed at Waterway No. 3.

"Oh? Aren't these... otters?"

"Exactly. The natural monument and endangered species I mentioned. I saw them from the rooftop the other day; they've settled down in our waterway."

"There are so many of them!"

Dohee gasped as she zoomed in on the screen. There were only two adult otters, but they had four pups with them.

"It's likely a family. They must have washed down here when the upper reaches of the Imjin River flooded. The waterway construction opened up a path for them. I think they blocked Waterway No. 3 to build their nest."

"Amazing..."

Fascinated by Dojin's explanation, Dohee stared intently at the screen. Otters were cute enough on their own, but seeing the tiny pups squirming around made it impossible to look away. She instantly understood why otters were said to possess a magical charm.

But as she watched, she noticed something strange.

"Huh?"

The otter pups, which she thought were just squirming, were constantly chewing on something. The shape looked incredibly familiar.

"...Why are they eating this?"

Zooming in as far as she could, Dohee looked at Dojin, demanding an explanation. And for good reason—the otter pups were chewing on eels.

The tiny creatures, barely half the size of a palm, were munching on eels larger than their own bodies. Looking closer, she could even see a pile of dead eels stacked in a corner of the nest.

"Why else? Their parents caught them and brought them back as food."

"Oh..."

"The eel farm is probably in chaos by now. Otters have massive appetites. Their home was destroyed by the flood, so their survival instincts are in overdrive, and with pups to feed, they must be absolutely slaughtering those eels."

"..."

"And for the record, the farm owner can't sue us either. We aren't the ones taking the eels; it's the hawks nesting on our property. You know, right? Hwindung-i is a Class 1 endangered species, and Cheongdung-i and Hwanggeum-i are Class 2."

"Ah, so that's why you let them bring the eels back."

Hearing Dojin's words, Dohee realized what the punishment was. Between the trio of hawks and the ravenous otters, more than ten eels would be disappearing every single day.

"It must be a total disaster for them."

Even for a commercial ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠farm, losing over ten eels a day was a significant blow. Dojin smiled at her.

"It's probably worse than that. If my guess is correct, they should be heading this way right about now."

"Huh? What do you mean by..."

Just as Dohee was about to ask what he meant, unfamiliar voices echoed from a distance.

"What is that? What's going on?"

As Dohee ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠looked alarmed by the commotion outside the walls of Sekki House, Dojin pulled out his phone as if he had been waiting for this exact moment.

"What are you doing, you bastards? Do it right!"

Despite Sang-hyun's harsh shouting, Chanar and the other foreign workers were failing to catch the otter.

The small creature was incredibly nimble, slipping through their perimeter in the blink of an eye.

No, actually, that was just an excuse. It wasn't so much that the otter was fast, but that they were too slow.

I'm so sleepy.

I want to sleep.

Save me.

Having worked at the farm until dawn, their bodies were practically falling apart, with only a slight exaggeration.

Normally, they would have showered and been fast asleep by now, but Sang-hyun's relentless badgering had forced them out.

Moving like zombies, there was no way they could catch a wild otter with their bare hands.

Watching them, Sang-hyun was the only one bursting with frustration.

"You useless freeloaders! You can't even catch a single thing? This is why my eels are dying in droves!"

It was by pure chance that Sang-hyun had spotted the otter.

Returning from drinking in town until dawn the previous night, he had seen an otter catching eels from the pit.

Since it was a time when humans rarely roamed, the otter had let its guard down, allowing Sang-hyun to finally identify the eel thief.

And this scene was the direct result.

"If you catch those bastards, I'll give you a day—no, two days off! Kill them! If you can't catch them with your hands, throw rocks or whatever at them!"

At the mention of time off, Chanar and the others snapped back to attention and looked around.

Fortunately, there were plenty of decent-sized stones lying around.

Just as they were about to hurl them at the otter, Sang-hyun hastily stopped them.

"Hey, hey! Don't aim for the big ones, hit the pups! Can't you tell? Those adults are trying to lure you away to protect their young! If you hit the pups, they'll rush back to the nest. Throw all your rocks at once then!"

...

Chanar and the workers hesitated at Sang-hyun's words.

Even if they intended to kill them, they hadn't thought of using the pups as bait.

But their hesitation was brief. Their employer's scowl was deepening by the second.

Sigh.

Squeak!

As Chanar and the others turned toward the nest, the adult otters, which had been darting around to tease them, rushed to block their path.

Just as Sang-hyun had predicted, they were trying to protect their pups.

But it was already too late. Just as the stones were about to fly from their hands—

The voice, sounding as if it were amplified by a megaphone, made Chanar and the workers freeze and turn toward the source.

There stood Dojin, flanked by civil servants from the administrative center and local police officers, watching them.

As always, an action cam was mounted on Dojin's chest.