The second episode of the Isekai anime series “Why Raeliana Ended Up At The Duke’s Mansion” follows Hanasaki Rinko, who is stuck in a novel’s reality, playing the part of a girl named Raeliana, whose destiny is to die and make way for the novel’s protagonist. She attempts to alter her fate by trying to strike a deal with the wealthy Duke, Noah Wynknight.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Raeliana Made A Contract?
In the previous episode, Raeliana (Hanasaki) managed to gain some distance from her fiance, Lord Francis Brooks, who would have poisoned her otherwise. She gets the attention of Duke Noah Wynknight by mentioning a ‘royal seal,’ which is of great importance to him.
The episode begins with the Duke visiting Raeliana at her mansion. She is excited to find such a personality visiting her personally, thinking she has roped him in to go along with her plan. They both exchanged pleasantries, making the household gossip incessantly about their meeting.
In a very formal setting, Raeliana’s parents ask her the truth behind the rumors of Raeliana breaking her engagement with Francis. A guilt-ridden Raeliana tells them that she never loved Francis and didn’t speak out against the marriage out of a sense of duty. Unexpectedly, her parents offer no backlash; on the contrary, they seem relieved to see their daughter not putting her sense of duty over her happiness. Raeliana, who is, in fact, Hanasaki, is overwhelmed with guilt seeing such compassion from the parents, as she cannot tell them that the girl they speak to is not actually their daughter but a simple girl who fell from a building and got transported to this novel’s reality.
Raeliana, in her next step, prepares a contract and hopes to get it signed by Duke Noah, giving their deal legal validity. She arrives at Noah’s palace and finds herself part of an intense game of poker. When asked about the location of the royal seal, Raeliana surprises Noah by telling him that the seal rests with none other than Noah himself. Noah, maintaining his poker face, asks Raeliana to forget about the deal and leave, as she has failed to reveal the seal’s location, wasting his precious time. Raeliana (Hanasaki), already knowing the seal to be with Noah as described in the novel, maintains her confidence in this regard. She gives even more astute details to make Noah drop the bluffing game and admit to being the seal’s possessor. Noah, however, doesn’t budge and asks her to leave.
Raeliana is dismayed at his approach to the situation, as she clearly remembers that in the novel, Noah was on the side of the king, acting as his pawn, but had the public persona of wanting to lead the Royal Family, which would gain power only when the Royal Seal was found.
She begins to leave, hoping Noah will call his own bluff, as surely he knows that all her information regarding the seal’s location is absolutely correct. Letting her leave would mean endangering its safety.
Just before leaving, she turns back and sees a chess board with the king completely cut off from the other pieces that have misplaced themselves. She figures that the chess board represents the actual state of affairs in the kingdom and makes the prophecy that the leader of the House of Gale will not be the eldest but the second-eldest son of the Gale family. This information stumps Noah, and he finally budges in to negotiate the contract.
Before signing the contract, Noah asks Raeliana why she wants him to masquerade as her fiance for the next six months. She bases her contract on the rumor that her current fiance, Lord Francis, wants to kill her and inherit her father’s business. After a little deliberation, Noah figures he has no choice but to sign the contract. Raeliana leaves her father’s house to move into the Duke’s mansion. Meanwhile, Noah appoints his greatest warrior and spy, Taylor, behind Raeliana to always know her whereabouts.
Episode 2: Ending: Why Does Noah Sign The Contract?
After Raeliana rightly guesses the seal to be with him and describes in great detail its current location, he is taken aback, but after she makes the prophecy about the leader of the House of Gale, he grows extraordinarily curious and signs the contract.
Noah doesn’t get to know the source from which Raeliana is getting all these secrets and cannot let her roam freely unsupervised. He signs the contract and lets his spy, Taylor, guard her movements so as not to endanger any of his (Noah’s) plans.
Episode 2: Review
The second episode brought too much information to fit into the timeline. It got time to focus on the contract between Raeliana and Noah, but he couldn’t expand on the secrets he hides. They are revealed conveniently as Raeliana’s flashback or her imagination, hastily fitting all the information into the plot, which is quite jarring for the viewer. Hopefully, the upcoming episodes do justice to the stunning world of the novel created by the artists.
