"Oh, and what is it?" Arin asked, genuinely curious despite the circumstances that had brought him face-to-face with his grandfather. He had no intention of pretending that he was happy about being caught, especially since his disappearance had been meant as revenge for being sent to another continent without any warning. The entire mission had felt like an unnecessary punishment, and he had decided that if his family could inconvenience him so thoroughly, he was perfectly entitled to inconvenience them in return. Now that Karl had discovered him, however, Arin was beginning to suspect that his little act of rebellion might not end as comfortably as he had hoped.
"Wouldn't you like to know, young man?" Karl replied, wearing a dangerous smile that immediately made Arin reconsider asking any further questions. "But not so fast. You're coming with me, and I'm sure your mother will be delighted to see you again after a whole month." His tone was almost cheerful, which somehow made the threat considerably more worrying than if he had simply shouted at his grandson. Karl knew that most punishments he could devise would have little effect on Arin, who was stubborn enough to endure considerable inconvenience if he believed that doing so would prove a point.
His mother, on the other hand, was an entirely different matter. Karl had noticed the previous evening that Avela had not been particularly pleased when Arin failed to return home as expected, and the dinner table had been painfully quiet as a result. The only reason the family had avoided an argument was that Annemiek herself had ordered Arin to participate in the mission that had taken him away in the first place. Nevertheless, the atmosphere had been so cold that nobody had managed to start a proper conversation, and Karl had no doubt that Avela still had plenty to say to her son.
"No, thank you," Arin answered immediately, deciding that remaining in the tree was no longer a viable option. He rolled away from the branch and dropped toward the ground, intending to use the lower branches and thick foliage to cushion his fall before disappearing into the forest. It was a simple plan, one that should have worked well enough given his physique and familiarity with the woodland. Unfortunately, the plan depended on Karl allowing him to escape, and Arin had overlooked the possibility that his grandfather might already have anticipated such a reaction.
Before Arin could reach the ground, Karl caught him by the back of the neck, stopping his escape as though he had merely plucked an unruly cat from a tree. "That's not going to happen," Karl stated, his voice now carrying enough anger to make it clear that he had no intention of negotiating. "You're coming with me, and on the way there, you're going to give me your report on the mission." Arin dangled awkwardly in his grandfather's grip, suddenly confronted with the fact that all his careful planning had failed to account for one rather important detail: Karl knew him far too well.
For what felt like ten minutes, Arin struggled to formulate an answer that might somehow get him out of the situation. He considered arguing that he had already fulfilled the mission's practical requirements, that his absence had caused no meaningful damage, and that there was little point in dragging him home when he had finally found some peace. However, every possible response seemed likely to make Karl even more irritated, and Arin eventually realized that silence would not help him either. With a resigned sigh, he began delivering his report, knowing that he was in trouble now that he had been caught.
Deep down, though, Arin could not help thinking that the situation would have been completely different if he had not given away his position. Had he remained hidden, he could have continued enjoying his freedom while the family gradually became accustomed to his absence. He had never intended to avoid his responsibilities forever, only to take a little time for himself after being sent away under circumstances he considered unfair. Unfortunately, the discovery of his new connection with the forest had made him careless, and the resulting commotion had led Karl straight to him.
"Wait. That was the extent of your interaction with the other families?" Karl asked when Arin finally finished his report, disbelief written plainly across his face. He had listened carefully to every detail, expecting to hear about conversations, shared activities, and perhaps a few useful connections that had developed during the mission. Instead, he had discovered that Arin had interacted with the other families on approximately five occasions, and every single one had been a mandatory meeting. Karl stared at his grandson as though he were trying to determine whether the boy had deliberately misunderstood the purpose of the entire assignment.
"Well, what did you expect?" Arin replied, giving his grandfather a look that suggested the answer should have been obvious. "Did you expect me to suddenly become sociable with people I barely knew? They already knew one another, and I didn't want to be there, so I simply kept to myself." As far as Arin was concerned, there was nothing particularly strange about his behaviour, because he had never pretended to enjoy socializing for its own sake. He had completed the tasks required of him, attended the meetings he could not avoid, and spent the rest of his time minding his own business.
Karl closed his eyes for a moment, apparently searching for the patience required to deal with his grandson's attitude. The boy's response was so perfectly consistent with his personality that it only made the situation more frustrating. Arin had not misunderstood the assignment in a literal sense; he had simply ignored the broader purpose behind it, which was to maintain and strengthen relationships between the families. Those connections had existed for generations, but Karl understood that old friendships could not survive indefinitely if the younger generation made no effort to preserve them.
"Ah, you! Avela, here is your son," Karl called out, apparently deciding that he had reached the limit of what he could accomplish by speaking directly to Arin. He handed the problem over to his daughter-in-law and walked away, his frustration evident in every step. Arin watched him leave with a considerably better mood than he had possessed moments earlier, because irritating his grandfather was one small victory he could claim from the entire encounter. After being dragged into a mission he had never wanted, he could at least take some satisfaction in the fact that Karl had failed to make him feel guilty about his lack of social enthusiasm.
"Hi, Mom," Arin greeted Avela when she appeared, sounding far more relaxed now that Karl was no longer standing in front of him. "Do you know what got Grandpa so upset? He didn't seem very happy with how my mission went." He asked the question with an innocent expression that did not quite conceal his amusement, because he had noticed how thoroughly his report had annoyed Karl. Arin genuinely wanted to know what had caused such a strong reaction, although he suspected that his mother would not be nearly as entertained by the explanation.
"No, I don't," Avela replied, her expression leaving little doubt that she had concerns of her own. "But you, young man, have a lot of explaining to do." Before Arin could come up with a suitable response, she grabbed him by the hand and dragged him into their apartment, making it clear that his month away had not erased the consequences of his disappearance. Arin's brief satisfaction at having irritated his grandfather faded as he realized that he was now facing the person whose displeasure Karl had been so eager to mention. Whatever discussion awaited him, it was unlikely to be as easy to escape as the one he had just left.
Meanwhile, Karl returned to his room in a state of unusual frustration, prompting Annemiek to look up from what she had been doing. Her husband was often exhausted by the enormous amount of paperwork that came with managing the family, but this time he seemed irritated rather than merely tired. The difference was immediately apparent to her, because she had spent enough years living with him to recognize when something had genuinely upset him. "You seem frustrated, dear. What is the matter?" she asked, setting aside her concerns to give him her attention.
"It's your grandson," Karl answered, barely concealing his irritation. "The mission we sent him on was pointless." He then explained what Arin had told him, emphasizing how little contact the boy had maintained with the other families despite spending an entire month alongside them. According to Karl, Arin had spoken to the others only a handful of times, and those conversations had occurred exclusively during mandatory meetings. The report had confirmed his suspicion that the mission had failed in one of its most important purposes, even if Arin had technically fulfilled his immediate duties.
Karl continued explaining why the situation bothered him so much, making it clear that he had expected considerably more from his grandson. The other young people involved in the mission were likely to become the next generation of leaders within their respective families, or at the very least important figures who would stand close to those leaders. Maintaining relationships with them was therefore essential, because the Sonnenbergs could not afford to assume that connections established by their ancestors would automatically remain strong forever. Yet Arin had treated the entire experience as an unwanted obligation, choosing isolation over the opportunity to build relationships that might one day benefit the family.
What frustrated Karl most was that Arin's behaviour had been entirely predictable. The boy had felt wronged by being sent away, and rather than setting that resentment aside for the duration of the mission, he had allowed it to determine how he approached everyone around him. Since he had been replacing a recruit who had stayed behind, Karl had already considered the assignment necessary, but he had also expected it to provide an opportunity for Arin to grow beyond his usual habits. Instead, his grandson had remained firmly within his comfort zone, refusing to make even the smallest effort to engage with the people he had been sent to meet.
"Very well," Annemiek said calmly after hearing her husband's explanation. "Doesn't that prove that he lacks the fundamental qualities required of a patriarch? If that is the case, then you should start looking for someone else." Her expression showed little surprise, as though she had already considered the possibility that Arin was not suited to the position Karl wanted him to inherit. She understood why her husband valued the family relationships and why he believed the next patriarch needed to maintain them, but she did not share his certainty that Arin could be forced into becoming the person he envisioned.
"No," Karl replied sharply, refusing to accept the suggestion. "He has the potential to become a great patriarch, and there is nobody else in the family who is qualified to lead us right now." He had considered the alternatives, and none of the people he could realistically choose measured up to the standard he believed the position required. Arin possessed abilities, judgment, and potential that Karl considered essential, even if the boy's personality made him a frustrating candidate. As far as Karl was concerned, the problem was not that Arin lacked the necessary qualities, but that he had yet to mature enough to use them properly.
"He simply needs to grow up. He's still acting like a child," Karl concluded, already convincing himself that the situation could be corrected through persistence. With that declaration, he left the room, determined to find a way to shape Arin into the patriarch he believed the family needed. His confidence remained unshaken, because he had spent too long considering Arin the most suitable successor to abandon that plan over one disappointing report. If his grandson's greatest obstacle was his unwillingness to engage with others, Karl intended to make certain that the boy eventually learned to overcome it.
Annemiek remained seated on the couch, shaking her head as she watched her husband leave. She understood that Karl was trying to fulfil his responsibilities as patriarch, and she could not deny that Arin possessed many qualities that would make him a capable leader if he were willing to develop them. However, she also knew her grandson well enough to recognize that he was deeply introverted and had little interest in the kind of social leadership Karl expected from him. Arin might become an excellent patriarch in terms of ability, but that did not mean he would ever want to spend his life maintaining alliances and managing the family's relationships.
The real problem, in Annemiek's view, was that Karl had become so fixated on Arin's potential that he had stopped considering whether the boy actually wanted the position. Her husband believed that determination and discipline could overcome almost any personal reluctance, but she suspected that no amount of pressure would turn Arin into a naturally sociable person. If he matured and learned to handle the responsibilities expected of him, he might indeed become a great leader, yet his suitability for the role could not be measured by ability alone. A patriarch needed to be able to bear the burden of leadership, and Annemiek was no longer convinced that Arin possessed that desire.
She had her own reasons for believing that Karl needed to reconsider his plans, especially when she thought about the mission that had led to this latest argument. She had been the one who ordered Arin to go, fully aware that the decision would likely cause resentment and that her grandson might react by withdrawing from the other families. She had not made that choice without considering the consequences, nor had she expected the mission to transform Arin into a different person overnight. If Karl continued to insist that Arin was the family's only possible successor, he would never seriously consider the alternatives, and the Sonnenbergs might eventually be left with a patriarch who had been chosen for his potential rather than his capability to lead.