Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion Volume 9 Review

We reached the climax of the story in Volume 8, and now Raeliana and Beatrice have to deal with each other face-to-face. There can only be one survivor, and Beatrice believes it’s going to be her. Will Raeliana be able to save herself this time? Let’s find out.

The final battle, if so it can be called, between the real protagonist of the story and the side character who is bound to die, has arrived. After Beatrice accused Raeliana of killing the newly crowned empress, Raeliana knows it won’t be easy to prove her innocence, and although she’s used to saving herself, this time, her lover Duke Noah Wynknight has come to her rescue. The battle has turned two against one, but it’s Raeliana that puts an end to everything.

And now she must deal with the consequences… Plans are in place and Noah is happily going along with them until Raeliana’s ‘grandfather’ Heiki, aka the Pope, arrives and explains the resolutions to all the misunderstandings. It’s time for Raeliana and Noah to get their happily ever after, but an encounter with the goddess who sent Raeliana into the novel’s story might derail the couple’s plans for their future. What will Raeliana choose: to go back to her family in the world she comes from or build a new future with Noah?

It’s bittersweet reaching the end of Raeliana and Noah’s love story. In these nine volumes, the readers have got to know them and followed them in their journey to grow as people and in their relationship. Raeliana looked like a lamb ready for slaughter who was fighting to survive when she was first introduced, and Noah was the typical duke with a cold heart that readers usually can find in many romance stories. However, Raeliana learned how to survive by using her wit, and her personality, that doesn’t let her back down from a challenge, helped thaw the duke’s cold heart, even if unwillingly for a very long (long) time. After all, Noah’s twisted personality doesn’t make a relationship with him easy. It’s all thanks to Raeliana that Noah’s becomes more human and started to experience emotions that the people close to him couldn’t even imagine he could feel. Noah Wynknight in love? Ridiculous. But it’s his twisted personality that allows him to become everything Raeliana needs, and once he has her, he’s not letting her go. It’s still to be seen if it’s good or bad, but at least he’s not raising any red flags… and Raeliana can hold her own.

While this volume ends the main story of Raeliana and Noah, readers will be delighted to get glimpses of their future as the ending is followed by what I would consider side stories. They show our main characters’ happy ever after, and a few side characters’ futures, of course all still centred around Noah and Raeliana. While I enjoyed getting those glimpses into the future, I felt there was no clear break from one story to the other one in terms of the timing of the events happening. The narrative pace in these side stories picks up, and jumps from one story to the next quite fast.

The actual ending of the volume is what really makes the reader wish for a continuation of Raeliana and Noah’s love story. What if they met in the ‘real’ world where Eunha used to live before she was transported into the world of the novel Beatrice and reincarnated as Raeliana? Would she remember Noah? I would be so curious to know because it seems that Noah has somehow struck a deal with the goddess who sent Eunha to him. Well, this is just a wish from a fan of the series, and I cannot wait to see what Milcha, the author, and Whale, the artist will release next.

Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion is released in the English language by Yen Press with a translation by David Odell. The manwha series is complete at nine volumes while the anime is available on Crunchyroll and has only one season released.

Our review copy was supplied by Yen Press.