The King thinks Maitimo should get married and have children before he takes the crown, since he can hardly do it afterwards, so absent a good way to do that I think he was just planning to - watch all his siblings marry and have children and grandchildren, make excuses, wait, wait, wait some more, eventually maybe the King would relent but maybe not -

Yeesh. And what if Maitimo just--didn't want kids? Some people don't.

That might go over all right, were it true.

Would've been kind of awkward if Marille didn't.

I assume he discussed it before telling her anything, he was very paranoid about sharing it more than necessary.

True.

It's nice to not have to avoid ever being in the same room as both of them at the same time lest he suss out our dark secret anymore.

Oh, were you doing that? That must have been hard, with Marillë spending more time around his family - did you skip the wedding -

Nah, just coordinated very carefully so the three of us were never in view of each other at the same time. It was tricky. Kind of an enjoyable challenge, out of context.

If there were less at stake. Headshake.

...Yeah.

It was--kind of stressful--in between the recitation and Maitimo suggesting this whole scheme.

I can imagine. He wouldn't - even if it weren't him, I don't think - but that'd hardly feel like security.

Yeah. This is easier, that way.

Now I will have to ask him how many poor people he's guessed about and never mentioned, and who might be living in terror that some day he'll bring it up.

...Ooh, hadn't thought of that. We were definitely going to assume he was being nice and pretending it wasn't so before too much longer.

Most people probably would but - if there were some way to communicate that faster -

Yeah.

I wonder if things'll change with time. 

I think it's likelier than I did before I knew about Maitimo.

I actually think he might push harder for change if he wasn't hiding anything.

Well, I previously had no reason to expect that the amount of pushing was greater than none.

Fair enough. I'll point that out to him, I think he might not have realized how it'd look to people wondering if he cares.

I think wondering is the wrong word. Caring is--mostly not a thing anyone does.

Sure, but it's Maitimo, I expect him to be on top of lots of things no one else has given any thought.

True.

And maybe lots of people care privately, who'd know?