Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion Volumes 5 and 6 Review
The pretend love story between Raeliana and Duke Noah Wynknight is turning into a real relationship, whether Raeliana wants it to or not. What started as just a way for the young lady to survive in this new world is turning into much more than she expected. And Noah, a stoic nobleman with no interest in others, has begun to fall for Raeliana.
Raeliana has got an idea about Noah’s true feelings, but she can’t let them progress. Noah is destined for another woman, the original heroine of the story Raeliana reincarnated into. But she can’t tell him that, even when Noah doesn’t hesitate to show and declare his love for Raeliana. If it were a normal love story, Raeliana would be ecstatic, but it’s not. She needs to find Beatrice, the real heroine, and keep the story on the original path, minus Raeliana’s death, of course.
There is also someone else vying for Raeliana’s love: Justin Shamal, captain of the royal guards and a man Noah has never liked. The two men have butted heads since they were young, but now that Justin has fallen for Raeliana as well, it seems the situation is getting worse. As both Justin and Noah are also captains of two military forces that don’t see eye to eye, having Raeliana in the mix only means that the relationship between the two groups begins to deteriorate.
When a noble attempts to assassinate the new-born prince, Raeliana uses her knowledge of the original story to save him, but this risks creating a bigger misunderstanding. In fact, both Noah and Justin come to her rescue, only for Noah to notice that the engagement ring that his fiancée lost is now around the neck of Justin. If it were any other person, swords would have been drawn, but Noah knows that not even Raeliana is that shameless (not sure if this is a compliment or an insult, but we’ll let Raeliana decide). However, this brings more drama into their lives.
During the Foundation Day Festival, Noah and Justin can’t help but fight over Raeliana, which amuses the king immensely. The king is Noah’s brother but has the personality of a jokester, and pushes a tough choice onto Raeliana. Luckily, extremists against the king and the church disrupt the festivities before Raeliana can make the choice, but now with the help of Sir Adam, she needs to save Noah from a mortal trap.
Noah and Raeliana’s relationship continues with its highs and lows. Noah has real feelings for his fiancée, and he’s not afraid to admit it anymore. Raeliana is the one in trouble now. She has developed feelings for Noah, but she can’t tell him the truth about her and about his predestined partner, Beatrice. The only person who knows the truth is High Priest Heika who wants to help Raeliana, but he can’t stay by her side as he needs to finish an international tour. However, he gives Raeliana a task, more like a question, for which she can hopefully find the answer while he’s away: what happened to the real Raeliana before she possessed the body? The search for the truth brings more questions than answers and old and dark magic might be involved.
Beatrice makes an appearance together with Vivian Shamal, as the two are working together, although involuntarily. Vivian ended up being Beatrice’s accomplice in her attempts to get rid of Raeliana, and now she’s in too deep to leave—she feels the only option is to help Beatrice with her plans to leave unscathed. This dynamic is interesting as Vivian is supposed to be the villainess, but she’s being used by Beatrice, who is supposed to be the heroine. The roles have inverted, and thanks to Raeliana’s actions, the story seems to have changed as well.
As with the previous volumes, the illustrations use bright and vivid colours to keep with the shojo genre, and the illustrator pays special attention to show the characters’ emotions. Even without words, it’s clear what someone is feeling, and the words that accompany those specific moments add to the comedy aspect of the story caused by Noah’s and Raeliana’s personalities.
Something to note, which I’m not sure if it was just my copy or it’s an issue on all copies, is that in Volume 5, an image showing Raeliana’s mother has some dragged red ink on top of her neck. For a few seconds I wondered what was going on and if the series had changed genre until I realised it was just a printing issue. Moreover, there are scenes where Raeliana interacts with people from a different nation who also speak a different language. The lettering for the dialogues in the other language is really similar to what is used in the rest of the volume, so unless it’s clear who is speaking, it’s hard to understand if it’s in the nation’s language that Raeliana normally uses or if it’s a foreign language.
Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion is written by Milcha and illustrated by Whale. It’s been adapted as an anime, with the first season available on Crunchyroll. The manhwa started as a digital comic on Tapas, and it’s been brought out in print in the English language by Yen Press with a translation by David Odell. Volume 7 is slated for release in July 2024.
Our review copies from Yen Press were supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.
