The orphanage’s permission came easily.

When they heard that Hwang Ho and Heukho, in the shapes of elementary schoolers, wanted to spend the year-end with Ye Beomyeong, they approved on the spot.

Partly it was because Ye Beomyeong talked so much about the friends he’d made at school, and partly because the child who had been clinging to the cold front door these last few days, hoping one of the volunteers might come, had looked so pitiful.

As a result, Heukho and Shinsu boarded the air limousine heading for Gangwon Province together.

‘I was going to have Heukho greet the kids at the orphanage and then send him back to the manor with Shinsu. Shinsu can manage in other lands if he’s got the wits for it, but he’s never as strong as he is on Cheoniksan.’

But Ye Beomyeong climbed into the vehicle holding Shinsu in one arm and gripping Heukho’s hand tightly with the other, and that plan became impossible.

The child who had sobbed and sobbed had only just regained his emotional footing; if the two beings he’d grown attached to were taken away, he might not cry, but his heart would surely wobble.