A reflective mask blank includes a substrate; a multilayer reflective film that reflects EUV light; a protection film that protects the multilayer reflective film; and an absorption film that absorbs the EUV light, in this order. The protection film contains 50 at % or more of Rh. When a band-shaped gray scale image parallel to an interface between the protection film and the multilayer reflective film is obtained by imaging a cross section of the protection film with a transmission electron microscope (TEM) and a luminance profile of the gray scale image in a longitudinal direction of the gray scale image is created, a number of peaks of the luminance profile per 100 nm in the longitudinal direction of the gray scale image is 50 or more.