Shouldn’t you be the first one to step up and draw the bow?!

Right? Or let someone else do it.

now that I think about it, the maidens / princesses and the prince are half-siblings, aren’t they? Since they should all share a common father: the emperor

I don’t think so. The maidens are from the same clans as the consorts, but I don’t think they’re the consorts or the emperor’s children. Reirin is the empress’ niece, Seika is the Kin consort’s niece and Shu Keigetsu is not Gabi’s child for example

This prince is so fucking useless. It’s your own mother who’s in peril. Shouldn’t you be the first one to step up and draw the bow?!

Yes! He’s so useless that it’s honestly surprising Reirin respected him at all. Like Reirin said, she gave him three chances, and he spurned every single one. She’s fucking done with him.

That said, curses aren’t exactly common knowledge. Even Reirin didn’t believe in them before the body swap. So from his perspective, her asking for the bow could easily sound like, “I need it for prayer,” or “I want to pretend I’m helping without actually doing anything productive.” In that context, refusing to hand over a priceless artifact isn’t completely unreasonable.

But yes, he should absolutely have done it himself, especially since it had apparently worked on Reirin just a day or two earlier. My dude, your mother is dying. Pick up the fucking bow. 😂

Also, now that I think about it, the maidens / princesses and the prince are half-siblings, aren’t they?

Well, Kougetsu is obviously adopted.

Why is Reirin the only one to call the crown prince nii-sama, but the maidens don’t?

Because this one is actually a fun Japanese-language quirk. The term Reirin uses is written お従兄様（おにいさま） — the kanji means “cousin,” but it’s specifically given the reading nii-sama, i.e. “dear older brother.”

So Reirin is essentially calling him “older brother” while the written word says “cousin.” The other maidens would presumably use the normal itoko-sama (従兄様) instead.

I’m definitely not a Japanese expert, though, so take that last bit with a grain of salt. 😅