"In the end, I was destined to die young."
Just as a young Park Eunha received a message that she was accepted into one of the universities she applied to, a stranger pushed her off a building to her death. When she woke up, she found herself in the body of Raeliana McMillan, the daughter of a Nouveau Riche baron. However, Eunha realized that she was inside the world of a novel she once read and that Raeliana's death by her fiancé would trigger the plot of the novel.
When all of her plans to break up with her would-be murderer fail, Raeliana eventually claims that she's fallen for Duke Noah Wynknight, the love interest of the protagonist of the novel. Threatened by Raeliana with knowledge she gained from the novel, Noah plays along and gets engaged to Raeliana, but quickly falls for her for real.
Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion (original title: 그녀가 공작저로 가야 했던 사정
) is a Korean Web Serial Novel written by Milcha, which received a manhwa adaptation by KakaoPage with illustrations by Whale from 2017 to 2021. The manhwa is digitally published by TappyToon in English. Since 2022, the manhwa is also published by Yen Press.
On July 4 2022, it was announced that the story will be adapted into an anime and a trailer for the anime released in November 2022 announced that it will air in April 2023. Crunchyroll has licensed the anime adaptation for streaming, with Typhoon Graphics animating.
Why Raeliana Ended up at the Duke's Mansion provides examples of:
- Arranged Marriage: Raeliana was originally arranged to marry Francis Brooks before she managed to break it off. Pryse Eriteal is a country Impoverished Patrician who had to marry a much older man.
- Assassination Attempt:
- Vivian Shamal attempts to assassinate Raeliana by having an emerald hairpin added to Raeliana's belongings after the latter shows her up in the Hunt. The emerald was actually an explosive crystal that would have exploded once it absorbed enough ambient light. The high priest saves Raeliana when he uses his magic to contain the explosion. It later turns out that Vivian wasn't the actual perpetrator, she was only being used by them and thought the crystal only had a curse that would make the wearer ugly.
- Beatrice, with Vivian assisting her, attempts to murder Raeliana via tying her up and starting a fire during a ball at the royal palace. It fails because Vivian didn't properly tie up Raeliana, so she's able to break loose and use a Bedsheet Ladder to try climbing down, allowing her to hang on long enough for Noah to reach her.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Happens most of the time between Raeliana and Noah. Most of their appearances often involve them snarking and manipulating each other but when one of them decided to be sweet, you can't help but cringe in sweetness.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Vivian Shamal is very ineffective at being the villainess. Raeliana is completely unfazed by any of her silly schemes and Beatrice, rather, Original Raeliana plays her for a patsy.
- Blackmail: Happens a few times. Once when Raeliana blackmails Noah into their fake engagement. Later it is revealed that her fiancé was actually being blackmailed into killing her. Not that that makes him a good guy.
- Chekhov M.I.A.: Without Raeliana's murder acting as impetus to return, Beatrice doesn't show up. Raeliana attempts contact her supposed friend by writing to the university that Beatrice was supposed to be attending but finds out that Beatrice is no longer a student. Raeliana attempts to investigate what happen, but it falls wayside. At the end of the first season, Beatrice is finally revealed to be working for Vivian Shamal.
- Chekhov's Skill: Crosses over with Chekhov's Hobby. It's mentioned that Raeliana enjoyed recreational shooting with her father early in the series, and that she's very skilled with a gun. This comes into play twice - once when she defends herself against Brooks by firing a warning shot into the ground right in front of his crotch, and again in the final act.
- Crime After Crime:
- First Brooks conned several women out of their fortunes and committed many counts of Breach of Promise of Marriage. Then he accidentally kills one of his marks when she got too possessive and is blackmailed into planning the murder of Raeliana by her brother. Then when she refuses to marry him and gets engaged to another man, he resorts to kidnapping.
- Vivian believed the explosive crystal disguised as an emerald hairpin given to her by Beatrice only caused a curse to make someone ugly. She didn't realize what it actually did until after it exploded, nearly killing Raeliana. Because being connected to an attempted murder of a duchess would jeopardize her eligibility becoming queen if it ever came to light, she ends up helping Beatrice attempt to murder Raeliana via fire in a later arc.
- Dub Name Change: The Japanese translation of the webcomic changes Eunha's name to Hanasaki Rinko, and this name is what the anime adaptation follows for the Japanese dub.
- Doomed by Canon: Raeliana McMillan is fated to die at the hands of her fiance in the original novel, this leads to the reincarnated Raeliana taking steps that would ensure that she survives.Unbeknownst to her at the start of the story, the original Raeliana met a Dark Priestess who spoke of this fate and led to the original Raeliana making a Deal with the Devil by swapping Park Eunha's soul (who was meant to become Beatrice) with her own.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: There are a lot of ups and downs along the way, but Raeliana manages to earn her own happy ending; getting to live way past her supposed death and married to Noah.
- Everyone Can See It: Almost everyone in the story can notice Noah's feelings for Raeliana. Even she noticed it, although she has her own reasons for not acknowledging them at first.
- The Faceless: The person who pushed Eunha to her death in her past life is only shown from the neck down when first shown. When Eunha reawakens in Raeliana's body, part of her goal is to find out who caused her death, which includes remembering the face of her murderer. It's later shown that the same dark priestess who the real Raeliana made a deal with, under the guise of being an author, was the one who pushed Eunha off the rooftop in order to proceed with the deal.
- Fantastic Racism: There's racism against the Alsasa, a population of northerners with red eyes. They are seen as bloodthirsty and inhumane.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: It's revealed that Park Eunha was supposed to have reincarnated as Beatrice, but the original Raeliana decided to change her fate and made a Deal with the Devil with a dark priestess before Park Eunha's awakening, resulting in Park Eunha reincarnating and becoming the Raeliana the readers are familiar with. The original Raeliana is later revealed to have become Beatrice instead.
- He Knows Too Much: Raeliana discovers the dark priestess she was trying to track down to find answers to her condition was found dead some time ago. As she learns, the priestess had been involved in why a concubine was able to conceive Noah's nephew and likely was killed to cover up the fact she used dark magic.
- I'm Having Soul Pains: Raeliana passes out midway through the series in a very unexplained, but near fatal way. The High Priest is able to help her, but reveals that her soul is rejecting Raeliana's body as it was never meant to be there, and if they don't figure out a way to help her, she will die. The same thing is happening to the original Raeliana in Beatrice's body, hence her single-minded determination to kill her old body and settle her soul.
- Marriage of Convenience: Noah and Raeliana only got engaged to break her engagement with her murderous ex. But then Noah started to like Raeliana for real, and Raeliana falls for Noah as the story goes on.
- Media Transmigration: The protagonist got pushed off a building and reincarnated into the world of a murder mystery she read as Raeliana, the dead centerpiece of said mystery.
- Next Life as a Fictional Character: After being pushed down from a great height shortly after she got her news about being able to enter university, Park Eunha reincarnates as Raeliana McMillan, who is originally a Small Role, Big Impact extra and Beatrice's best friend whose death drove the start of the plot for Beatrice to get involved with Noah Wynknight. Wanting to avoid her Doomed by Canon fate, Raeliana decided to take things to her hands and approach Noah first.
- Point of Divergence:
- In the original novel, the protagonist Beatrice returned after hearing of her friend's death, which she exposed to be a murder. In this timeline when Park Eunha transmigrated to, that does not happen and Beatrice only returns far later.
- In the original novel, one of the cases Beatrice has to solve involves her finding the culprit who killed Noah's nephew. Raeliana remembering about the case has her save the baby before the culprit could get his hands on the infant.
- Potty Failure: In an establishing character moment, Raeliana shoots right next to her kidnapper's crotch to make him piss himself.
- Really 700 Years Old: The high priest looks to be a child because his power is being suppressed. When he's using his full power, he looks like a normal adult.
- Recruited from the Gutter: The Duke recruits Adam into his household after his military unit was disbanded.
- Reincarnation: The epilogue chapter of the Manhwa shows Noah reincarnating into the modern world and meeting Raeliana's original incarnation, Park Eunha.
- Released to Elsewhere: Raeliana was told that Brooks and Langston were sent to St. Belle's prison for their crimes. In actuality, they were executed. She figures it out later.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Raeliana suspects her soul rejecting her body is a consequence of being reincarnated and going against the original story trying to defy her fate. The real reason for this is because Eunha's soul was meant to become Beatrice and thus the original female lead, but the original Raeliana in an attempt to avoid her fate swapped their souls with dark magic so Eunha became Raeliana instead. Ultimately, it isn't her that threw the plot off, it's the original Raeliana.
- Romantic Fake–Real Turn: The hook of the main couple. Their relationship starts out as one of mutual convenience, and even has an end date set - six months, and then they'll amicably dissolve the partnership. Of course, there are no points for guessing how things actually turn out... Especially given that Noah is meant to fall in love with Beatrice... and Raeliana is Beatrice's intended soul in a different body.
- Romantic False Lead: Raeliana believes this, and only got engaged to Noah in order to escape Francis and her death with the intention to 'return' Noah to Beatrice once she showed up. A priestess seems to support this claiming Noah's fated one is the blonde (Beatrice) and the brunette (Raeliana) needs to die. However, not only does Noah fall for Raeliana for real, it turns out Eunha was meant to reincarnate as Beatrice, but her soul was swapped by the original Raeliana via a Deal with the Devil before she awoke. The priestess was probably referring to the souls as they were supposed to be, rather than their present locations.
- Running Gag: Mount Sycret's frigid temperature."Every day someone freezes to death on that mountain, even in autumn."
- Shadow Archetype: The original Raeliana to Eunha aka the current Raeliana. The original Raeliana also wanted to defy her fate and find happiness, but instead of choosing to actively defy it like Eunha chooses to do, she chooses to swap souls with Beatrice, who was destined to acquire happiness. This action only leads her being trapped in a desperate struggle to kill her original body when Eunha averts her own destined death by her own efforts. In essence, while Eunha did believe that the novel's events couldn't be changed, she still chooses to face them directly and is able to forge her own future. Meanwhile, the original Raeliana believed that destiny, both good and bad, was static no matter what she did, so she convinced herself she has to become Beatrice and kill her original body to find happiness, which only leads to her dying as destined.
- Small Role, Big Impact: The dark priestess who helped the original Raeliana swap her soul with Beatrice by convincing her it was the only way to defy her fate has minimal presence overall and she dies rather early on, but her actions spark all the conflict and changes in the story.
- Spared By Adaptation: In-universe. In the original novel, Noah's nephew was murdered and one of the mysteries was discovering his killer. Because of Raeliana remembering this event in time, she's able to interrupt said murderer's attempt and therefore save Noah's nephew.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: In the original novel, Raeliana was poisoned to death when Brooks tainted her tea with arsenic until it eventually killed her.
- There Can Only Be One: Later revealed to be one of the higher stakes of the series. Both Park Eunha's soul and the original Raeliana's soul know they're in the wrong body, and are rejecting their current body in favour of their intended one. The only way to stop this, as the current "Beatrice" seems to believe, is to kill the soul's original body.
- Trapped in Another World: Park Eunha reincarnated into Raeliana McMillan, and there's no going back.
- Unintentionally Notorious Crime: While Brooks and Langston's plan to murder Raeliana to steal her fortune was destined to fail regardless if they succeeded in killing her, it would have just landed them in jail in the original universe. Because Raeliana became the fiancée of Duke Noah Wyknight, second son of the king, in the changed universe, it handed them a one-way ticket to execution.
- Played with in the final arc. Beatrice intends this to be what happens to Raeliana, when she murders Vivian who has just married Siatrich and become Queen, and pins the blame on Raeliana. She did not account for the High Priest arriving just in time to reveal Beatrice's involvement in one of the previous attempts on Raeliana's life, which throws her whole testimony into question and makes her the prime suspect.
- Wham Shot: First Vivian is arguing with someone when her Assassination Attempt on Raeliana fails before her brother interrupts them. The brother asks that Vivian's friend introduce herself only for it to be Beatrice.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Eunha had finally gotten accepted into a university after studying for a year, only to be murdered when someone, later revealed to be the priestess Raeliana made her Deal with the Devil with, pushes her off the roof.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Eunha was told by a priest that she was destined to die young and it came true. This drives her to actively fight against her fate as Raeliana. The original Raeliana also defied this when she discovered her fate to where she made a Deal with the Devil to swap her soul with Eunha.
- Ultimately played with, on many levels. While Raeliana's attempts to save her own life via engagement to Noah do alter the plot of the original novel to a level she is concerned by, a lot of things do play out as the novel intended. Specifically regarding the main couple, and the original Raeliana's fate: Noah's "fated one" is stated to the "the blonde one" - he ends up with Raeliana, who is "the blonde one"'s soul in a different body. The original Raeliana resorts to dark magic to swap her soul in Beatrice's body to avoid her death at Brooks' hands, but ultimately only delays the inevitable as her multiple attempts to murder her old body and secure her soul in Beatrice's body get her killed. Even then, Raeliana comments the original Raeliana that she thrived in her body, which proves to her that the original Raeliana had other options to defy her fate, but she resigned herself to believed otherwise.
