English Dub Review: Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion “Why Raeliana Was Called a Barbarian”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
During a break in her purification period, Raeliana encounters His Holiness Heika, and their first meeting quickly devolves into an argument. But this only makes Heika more curious about the girl who spoke so impudently to him…

Our Take:
The previous episode introduced us to His Holiness Heika Demint near its conclusion. While religiously royal, he also comes across as a pain in the butt while arguing with his priest assistant, Wade. This week’s episode now has him encountering Raeliana during her purification period, which would’ve allowed Heika to provide a proper friendly greeting. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case, as Heika remains as stubborn as ever toward Raeliana, but with good reason.
Before that happened, we were treated to another humorous scenario with Raeliana feeling uneasy with the world’s traditions. After arriving at the temple, protected by a magic dome, Raeliana is treated with a purification treatment before lighting the flame since only the pure ones can perform this task. However, it comes with the cost of her sanity. She has to bathe herself with purification water three times a day and consume the gruel before taking a bath, which tastes as awful as how it smells. Amid the show’s romantic fantasy elements, it never fails to display some brief, silly moments involving Raeliana experiencing the novel’s strange traditions herself.
As mentioned earlier, the first meeting between Raeliana and Heika is far from extravagant, as Raeliana treats Heika like a regular boy instead of a religious heir to the temple. This pisses off Heika to the point where he strives to prove to her who he is. That is until he discovers that Raeliana knows the native language by translating his holy transcripts. Wade finally explains to Raeliana that Heika is His Holiness, but that hardly matters when Raeliana declines Heika’s offer to become his disciple, leaving the young heir more confused than upset. Of course, it would’ve made the situation less embarrassing if Heika had mentioned who he was earlier, but we wouldn’t have to see Raeliana feeling ashamed of her actions if that happened.
Heika is the same spoiled piece of royalty as in last week’s episode regarding how he treats Wade and speaks negatively about fate controlling people’s destinies. However, he’s slowly becoming more tolerable in this episode, giving me hope that this development will continue in later episodes. I also appreciated its reflection on Raeliana maintaining her faith in everything and herself, mainly when she saves the bird from drowning. Following that embarrassing encounter, we’re one step closer to the ceremony, with Raeliana all dressed up for the temple’s banquet. However, she’s also offered the same green gem we’ve seen in the last few episodes for her to wear. With any luck, we might see its true purpose unfold sooner rather than later.