Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion Volumes 3 and 4 Review
It’s time to announce the results of the hunting party that Raeliana and her fake fiancé Noah attended, and it seems like Raeliana is the winner, to the annoyance of Vivian Shamal, the woman vying for Noah’s love. Too bad he only has eyes for Raeliana, although he doesn’t understand it yet. For the first time, Noah has found someone who piques his interest, and he’s not about to let Raeliana go any time soon.
While Raeliana is away in the Holy Kingdom, as the winner of the hunting party, she gets to meet the Grand High Priest, Heika. His personality is quite peculiar and Raeliana doesn’t really know how to deal with him. Her skills in understanding any language make Heika want her as his disciple—too bad Raeliana has other plans.
Although the physical distance between Noah and Raeliana keeps increasing, first, when Raeliana is in the Holy Kingdom, and second, when she’s stuck in the royal palace at the mercy of the prankster king, their feelings grow stronger and stronger. Raeliana notices that Noah might like her for real, but it’s not time for Noah to admit it yet. However, when Raeliana experiences two potentially deadly accidents, Noah is upset. He has never cared for another person as much as he does for Raeliana.
But Raeliana knows she can’t have feelings for Noah. Beatrice, the original female protagonist in the novel she reincarnated into, is Noah’s predestined partner, and Raeliana needs to find her to make things go as they are supposed to.
I love the banter between Raeliana and Noah. They show a different side of their personalities to each other than they show to the rest of the nobility. In a sense, they are quite similar, although Raeliana is way more expressive. Noah was a cold-hearted duke at the beginning of the story, but Raeliana has done wonders in thawing his heart, albeit unintentionally. She’s sticking to her plan to find Beatrice and have her marry Noah, but it seems like Noah doesn’t want to let her go.
More characters are introduced in Volumes 3 and 4. Grand High Priest Heika looks like a child as he keeps his holy powers sealed. Raeliana doesn’t recognise him at first, so she treats him as a child, but when she’s properly introduced, he insists that she should call him ‘grandpa’ for him to forget how she first treated him before she knew his true identity. Heika has a funny personality and being such an important man, he has always felt superior to others and has always got what he wanted. That stops with Raeliana. She doesn’t bow down to him and is willing to tell him no, but the interest that he takes in Raeliana might turn him into an important character for the story. At the beginning I thought that a love triangle might develop, but the more scenes with Heika and Raeliana that transpire, the more the idea faded away.
Vivian Shamal and her brother Justin also make an appearance. Vivian is not happy with Raeliana. She thinks Raeliana took her place at Noah’s side, so she wants revenge. The revenge that happens is not what she really expected, but it seems she might be being manipulated by someone else. Justin, on the other hand, meets Raeliana but he doesn’t know who she is. Raeliana doesn’t know who Justin is, either and the two keep meeting accidentally while they deal with their own problems. While Heika might not turn out to be a huge impediment to Noah and Raeliana’s relationship, Justin gives me a bad vibe. So let’s see what will happen.
In Volume 4, we get to meet the king as well, Noah’s brother. The king is a prankster, and he tricks Raeliana into staying in the castle with him for a while. But it might not be such a bad thing, as both Raeliana and Noah prove how well they know each other. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is. I need for them to find Beatrice, so that they can realise that Noah and Raeliana are truly made for each other, and they can then have their happily ever after.
Like the previous volumes, these ones are in full colour, with illustrations that remind me of anime more than traditional manga. The covers have different illustrations with Raeliana and/or Noah and each cover has its own pastel colour-scheme. Something I noticed and I’m glad that Yen Press is doing for this series is that if there are empty pages added to make the extent needed for printing, Yen Press has gone a step further than the traditional blank white pages, and added colourful pages that match the cover colour. I thought it was a nice touch that gave something more to the manhwa. While the covers for this series are quite simple in terms of finishes, e.g. no Spot UV (the shiny look that some elements on the cover usually have), Yen Press are keeping the covers and colour theme consistent.
Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion Volumes 3 and 4 were written by Milcha, illustrated by Whale and published by Yen Press with the English translation by David Odell. Volume 5 is slated for release in November 2023.
Our review copies from Yen Press were supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.
