Webcomic / Marriage of Convenience

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Once, Bianca was the infamous wife of a great war hero, Count Zachary de Arno. It was a loveless marriage, but at least she enjoyed a life of frivolous spending and terrorizing the servants…until the day her husband fell in battle. Suddenly a widow with no friends, no family, and - most importantly - no heir, Bianca was cast out of Arno and left to fend for herself.

Now she lays dying on the cold, hard floor of a monastery, lamenting all the things she'd do differently if she had a second chance at life. She closes her eyes for the final time…

...Only to open them and find she's the young Countess Arno again.

The series is available to read in English on Tapas, WebToon, and TappyToon. ^note Each platform has a unique translation. A physical release by Yen Press is currently ongoing. A sequel titled Marriage of Convenience II: An Unforgettable Song, began serialization in August 2025.

Marriage of Convenience contains examples of:

• Accidental Time Travel: The story starts with Bianca dying in a monastery, only to wake up twenty years in the past, to her nineteenth winter. This turns out to be divine intervention; Bianca is a saint chosen by God to help create the best possible future—the one in which she and Zachary have a child together, who'll go on to become the greatest ruler on the continent.
• Age-Gap Romance: Bianca was married off to an eighteen-year-old Zachary when she was just a child. ^note Exactly how young Bianca was depends on which version of the story you're reading: she was originally six in the novel, then aged up to nine in the manhwa, then aged up again to eleven in the Tapas English translation. Thankfully, he has no interest in acting like a real married couple until she's in her twenties.
• Alliterative Name: Prior to getting married, Bianca's full name was Bianca de Blanchefort.
• Altar Diplomacy:
  • Bianca and Zachary's marriage was arranged to form an alliance between House Arno and House Blanchefort.
  • Sevran secures a peace treaty with the neighbouring kingdom of Castilla using an engagement between King Victor’s grandson, Prince Albert, and Castilla’s Princess Navara.
  • In the original timeline, Jacob married a princess from Aragorn after becoming king, in order to repay them for helping him seize the throne.
• Almost Kiss: In Episode 22, Zachary and Bianca are about to kiss inside their carriage, when they're interrupted by Yvonne opening the door.
• Animal Metaphor:
  • Played for Laughs in Episode 98, when Laia compares the D'abovilles to herbivores. Catherine and her parents are cute, gentle squirrels, while her three headstrong aunts are bulls.
  • Blanche de Toulouse's timid personality reminds Sauveur of a frightened rabbit in Episode 130.
• Animal Motif: The crest of House Arno is a black wolf.
• An Arm and a Leg: Lucy's husband loses both his hands as punishment for physically abusing her.
• Arranged Marriage: Bianca’s father sold her hand in marriage to Zachary in order to cement an alliance between their houses.
• The Atoner: Zig-zagged. Initially, Bianca is just trying to live a better life for the sake of self-preservation; if being a “wicked wife” is what led to her downfall in the previous timeline, then logically she should try to repair her reputation to avoid meeting the same fate in this one. But as she falls in love with Zachary and builds friendships with the people around her, she begins to genuinely regret how she hurt them in the past and strives to create a future where all of them are safe.
• Attempted Homewrecker: The bard Fernand pursues Bianca, despite knowing she's a married woman. In the previous timeline he was successful, but after learning the hard way what a scoundrel he is, Bianca is not interested in repeating her mistakes.
• Attempted Rape: Fernand tries to assault Bianca when she rebuffs his advances, but Prince Jacob violently dispatches him before anything happens.
• Auto Erotica: Zachary and Bianca have sex in their carriage in Episode 64, and again in Episode 95.
• Babies Ever After: The series ends with the birth of Bianca and Zachary's child, Alec. The Distant Finale shows Yvonne and Gaspard go on to have a son, Gaston, and Catherine and Marceau have a daughter named Muriel.
• Back from the Dead: Bianca dies in childbirth, only to immediately demand God send her back, as compensation for all the shit she's been through. It works.
• Bastard Angst: Prince Jacob is ostracized by his siblings for being an illegitimate child conceived from their father's rape.
• Bastard Bastard: Prince Jacob. His difficult childhood and the stigma that followed him because of his birth turned him into a spiteful, self-serving man who's willing to betray his own family and kingdom for an opportunity to seize power.
• Batman Gambit: Zachary pretends to go missing on the journey back to Arno, in order to trick Prince Jacob into thinking Viscount Hugues’s plan to eliminate him has succeeded. This causes Jacob to drop his guard and come out of hiding, allowing Zachary to apprehend him.
• Bedroom Adultery Scene: Fernand is forced to make a quick escape in Episode 48 after he's caught in bed with a man's wife.
• Beta Couple: Bianca's maid Yvonne and bodyguard Gaspard quickly develop feelings for each other while serving her.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Roland chooses to throw himself into a river rather than let Zachary capture or execute him.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Zachary and Bianca finally kiss after he wins the jousting tournament in Episode 46.
• Bishie Sparkle: Both Prince Jacob and Fernand are drawn with sparkles to represent them weaponizing their good looks when they're trying to charm women.
• Bling of War: The Church's Order of the Hallowed Knights wear armour with wings, inspired by the real life winged hussars from 16th century Poland.
• Blood from the Mouth: In Episode 1, Bianca starts coughing up blood right before she dies.
• Break the Haughty: In her first life, Bianca was a “wicked woman” who ignored her husband, mistreated her staff, and spent extravagantly. This came back to bite her when Zachary died and Arno was inherited by his brother, who immediately kicked her out. She then spent the next decade living in poverty, before finally dying of disease.
• Bridal Carry: In Episode 30, Zachary picks Bianca up and carries her off, claiming she's feeling sick, as a way to get her away from Prince Jacob's harassment.
• Bride and Switch: Yvonne was originally supposed to marry a carpenter from a neighboring village, but she decided it would be more practical to keep working and send her younger sister Lucy in her place. She ends up regretting the decision once she learns the man is physically abusive, as she feels responsible for Lucy's suffering.
• Cain and Abel: Zachary and his older half-brother, Viscount Roland Hugues. Roland resented Zachary from the moment he was born, and kicked him out of as soon as their father died. Once Zachary became a war hero and surpassed him in both rank and renown, he grew bitter and began conspiring with Prince Jacob to take everything from him.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: Bianca calls her father “Count Blanchefort” while calling him out during their reunion, to emphasize their distance. She begins calling him father again once they've reconciled.
• Calling the Old Man Out: When Bianca finally reunites with her father for the first time since her marriage, she ends up lashing out at him for sending her away when she was just a child and telling her she could never return home. He breaks down and confesses he pushed her away because he was afraid if he didn't he wouldn't be able to let her go.
• The Casanova:
  • Prince Jacob. He's a notorious womanizer who'll sleep with any noblewoman he finds attractive, regardless of if she's married or not.
  • Fernand is a wandering minstrel who seduces women in order to earn their patronage.
• Character Narrator: The story is narrated by Bianca's maid, Yvonne. She's telling it to Zachary and Bianca's child, Alec.
• Child by Rape: Prince Jacob was conceived when his mother took advantage of King Victor while he was inebriated.
• Color-Coded Characters: Each of Zachary's three generals has a signature color.
  • Robert - Green.
  • Sauveur - Red.
  • Gaspard - Yellow.
• Coordinated Clothes: Bianca and Zachary frequently do this for events in the capital.
  • Both of them wear green to the banquet after the jousting tournament.
  • They wear matching white and gold outfits to their audience with the king in Episode 90.
• Curtains Match the Windows:
  • Zachary and his brother Roland both have silver hair and grey eyes.
  • Selene de Volnay has yellow hair and eyes.
• Dead Person Conversation: Subverted. Shortly after being informed Zachary fell in battle, Bianca has a dream in which he comes to say goodbye before departing for the afterlife. But then we find out at the end of the chapter this was just a figment of her imagination, because Zachary is still very much alive.
• Death by Childbirth:
  • Bianca and Zachary's mothers both died shortly after giving birth to them.
  • Catherine D'aborville’s mother continued trying to conceive a son even after several miscarriages, and ended up passing away after a stillbirth.
  • Bianca dies from blood loss during labor. She gets better.
• Delayed Narrator Introduction: The fact that Yvonne is the one narrating the story isn't revealed until Episode 6.
• Domestic Abuse: In the epilogue, Yvonne finds out her younger sister Lucy is being physically abused by her husband, who uses her as a punching bag to vent his insecurities. Yvonne eventually convinces her to petition for divorce, and orders the man's hands to be cut off so he can never harm anyone else again.
• Doves Mean Peace: Referenced. In Episode 62, Archbishop Francis mentions that doves are considered "sacred messengers of God," after the shape of one appears on Bianca's forehead, proving she's a saint.
• Disney Villain Death: Jacob dies falling from a balcony.
• Driven to Suicide: Jacob's mother took her own life when she realized King Victor would never return her love. She tried to convince her son to join her in death, but he, being a scared child, ran away in fear instead.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • Zachary is introduced observing Bianca “shrieking at the heavens” through a telescope on his way home from battle. Despite how bizarre her behavior looks, the only thing he notes is that she looks well. This hints at the fact he cares for her, despite her poor reputation.
  • Prince Jacob’s introductory scene features him making out with a married noblewoman in a courtyard, and dismissing her fear they'll be caught. This tells us he's someone who prioritizes his own desires above everything else.

• Evil Is Petty: Prince Jacob steals a portrait of young Bianca while he's visiting Count Blanchefort house.
• The Evil Prince: Prince Jacob is colluding with the enemy nation of Aragon in order to steal the throne from his older brother Prince Gautier.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Sevran and Aragorn are both based on medieval Europe, while Castilla is inspired by the Middle East.
• Fantasy Sequence:
  • When Zachary informs his generals he plans to take Bianca to the capital with him in Episode 10, Sauveur imagines how badly the journey will go in his "Inner Theatre", with him playing all the roles.
  • In Episode 25, Bianca fantasizes about what it'll be like to share a bed with Zachary for the first time.
• First-Name Basis: Prince Jacob begins referring to Bianca by her given name, rather than her title of Countess Arno, in order to irritate her husband and imply they're inappropriately close. Zachary never buys it as his wife made it very clear she HATES the prince.
• Flipping the Bird: When Prince Jacob and Count Hugues threaten to invade Arno if Bianca doesn't hand herself over, she responds by giving them the finger.
• Gender Reveal: Zachary and Bianca end up having an adorable kid named Alec, who has short hair and runs about in trousers and trains to be a knight. In the final chapter we find out “Alec” is short for Alexandra.
• Hairstyle Inertia: Bianca has had the exact same hairstyle, including her signature braid, since she was a child.
• Heir Club for Men: The series takes place in a patriarchal medieval society where women can't inherit titles. By the finale this is already beginning to change; King Victor gives the throne to his daughter, Princess Audelie, and narration reveals Bianca and Zachary's daughter Alexandra will one day become an empress who unites the entire continent.
• High-Class Glass: Zachary's butler Vincent wears a monocle.
• Hired Help as Family:
  • Bianca's nursemaid Jeanne was like a mother to her. She brought Jeanne with her when she was sent to Arno, and was completely distraught when she died of the plague.
  • Vincent is more like a father figure to Zachary than an employee. When Zachary's older brother Roland kicked him out of the family estate days after their father passed away, Vincent didn't hesitate to resign from his position and follow Zachary in order to protect him.
• Horny Bard: Fernand is a wandering minstrel who uses his good looks and lute skills to charm as many noblewomen as possible.
• Idle Rich: Bianca, before she returned to the past. She was infamous for doing nothing but spending money and sitting in her rooms all day, rather than doing her duty as lady of the house to manage the estate.
• I Kiss Your Hand: In Episode 30, Prince Jacob grabs Bianca's hand and forcefully kisses it just as Zachary is trying to escort her away.
• Improbable Age: Zachary was a skilled enough knight at sixteen to go to war and earn himself a title.
• Incurable Cough of Death: When we first see Bianca in Episode 1 she's coughing up blood, signalling she's close to death.
• Indignant Slap: In Episode 4, Bianca slaps a maid after overhearing her brag that she could do a better job at warming Zachary's bed.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Vincent explodes into a mass of tears and snot when he thinks Bianca is reverting to her frivolous spending habits in Episode 13.
• The Lady's Favor: Bianca gifts Zachary a lace handkerchief she made to carry during the jousting tournament.
• Lord Country: In Sevran, lords assume the name of the land they govern. For example, Zachary is the second son of the Hugues family, but became Zachary de Arno once he was given dominion over the Arno province. Even the king is Victor de Sevran.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: Prince Gautier “falls off his horse” and dies during a hunt, thanks to Jacob.
• Malicious Misnaming: Bianca has a habit of referring to Vincent as “Vinnie” no matter how many times he corrects her.
  • The epilogues show Alec has learned to do the same, much to Vincent's distress.
• Marked by the Supernatural: The consecration ritual in Episode 62 briefly reveals a glowing mark in the shape of a dove on Bianca's forehead, signifying she's a saint chosen by God.
• Marriage Before Romance: Zachary and Bianca are married for over a decade before they develop feelings for each other.
• Marriage of Convenience: It's in the title.
• Maybe Ever After: In the epilogues, Robert and Sauveur are approached by a pair of noblewomen, Blanche de Toulouse and Evangeline de Northumbria, who are looking for husbands. This turns out to be a ruse to meet with Bianca, but the two pairs are extremely compatible with them, so they nevertheless stay friends with Blanche and Sauveur even becoming a proper couple. Evangeline even proposes Robert still marry her if she beats him at chess, but the outcome of the match is left a mystery.
• Mistaken for Cheating: Bianca briefly suspects Zachary is keeping a mistress, because why else would he turn down her offer to consummate their marriage? The truth is he's just concerned Bianca is still too frail to risk getting pregnant.
• Nightmare Sequence: Bianca has several after she returns to the past, representing her anxieties about the future repeating itself.
  • In Episode 17 she has a nightmare about being abandoned by both Zachary and Fernand.
  • In Episode 27 she dreams about her husband, father, and brother all dying in war.
  • In Episode 42 she has a nightmare about Zachary dying in the jousting tournament.
• Old Retainer: Before serving Zachary, Vincent originally served his father, the late Viscount Hugues.
• Parents as People: Count Blanchefort is a man who loves his daughter more than anything in the world, but was willing to marry her off as a child for the sake of a political alliance.
• Pass the Popcorn: In Episode 28, when Sauvuer and Robert end up accidentally eavesdropping on a confrontation between Bianca and her father, Sauveur starts munching on an apple.
• Patchwork Kids: Bianca and Zachary's daughter Alexandra inherits her father's silver hair and her mother's green eyes.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Downplayed. Zachary and Bianca are madly in love by the end of the series, but it took more than a decade of marriage across two timelines to get there.
• The Plague: Arno suffered an outbreak of plague five years ago, leading to the death of Bianca's nursemaid.
• Poor Communication Kills: In Episode 35, Bianca gets angry when she finds out Zachary will be participating in the jousting tournament. Zachary thinks she's worried about seeing blood and gore, rather than his safety, so he tells her she doesn't have to watch. This in turn makes Bianca think he doesn't care if she's there or not.
• Princeling Rivalry: Prince Gautier is first in line to the throne, but his younger brother Jacob is plotting to steal it from him.
• Ready for Lovemaking: While travelling from Lahoz back to Arno, Zachary agrees to sleep with Bianca in her carriage, only to open the door and realize she meant the other kind of sleeping together.
• The Quiet One: Zachary's commander Gaspard is a man of few words.
• Red Baron:
  • Zachary is known as “The Count of Blood and Iron” for his victories on the battlefield.
  • Sir Gaspard is “The Gargantuan Mountain of Arno’s Black Wolf Battalion.”
• Rich Bitch: Bianca in the original timeline. She would spend money like water and run the servants ragged.
• Royal Bastard:
  • Prince Jacob was conceived out of wedlock, when the Queen's cousin tricked the King into sleeping with her while he was drunk.
  • Countess D’Aboville’s husband Marceau is the illegitimate son of an archbishop.
• Selling One's Own Hair:
  • It's implied the reason Bianca had a short bob when she died is that she was reduced to selling her hair to survive.
  • Lucy's husband forced her to cut her hair so he could sell it to fund his gambling habit.
• Scars Are Forever: Averted. The scar Zachary gets over his left eye during the war with Aragon eventually fades.
• Sibling Murder:
  • Prince Jacob stages Prince Gautier's “hunting accident” in order to take his place as heir to the throne.
  • Roland tries to ambush Zachary while he's returning home from war, in order to kill him.
• Significant Haircut: In a flashback it's revealed Catherine used to have waist-length hair before her mother passed away. She cut it short to escape all the snide comments about how “flashy it is while she was in morning.
• Significant Name Shift: Bianca starts referring to Zachary by his name, rather than “My Lord” the night they consummate their relationship.
• Skewed Priorities: Sauveur in Episode 7.
  Robert: What is it, my lord? Has Aragon made another invasion? If we need to prepare for battle—
  Zachary: This is a much bigger, more crucial matter.
  'Robert: [internally] More important than war?
  Gaspard: [internally] What could it be?
  Sauveur: [internally] Are those…glasses with arms on his lordship's face? Glasses with arms are quite stylish! I like Vincent's monocle as well, but this might be better!
• Spurned into Suicide: Prince Jacob's mother drank poison when she realized King Victor would never return her love.
• Strong Family Resemblance:
  • Bianca and her brother Joachim have the exact same brown hair and green eyes as their father.
  • Zachary and his brother Roland both have silver hair and grey eyes.
  • All the members of the royal family have blonde hair and blue eyes.
  • Gaspard’s son Gaston inherits his blue eyes and grey hair.
  • Green eyes, curly red hair, and freckles all run in the D’aboville family. Catherine, her father, and her three aunts, and her eventual three of her all have them.
• Succession Crisis: When Prince Gautier suddenly passes away, it creates confusion for who's next in line for the throne—Gautier’s son, Prince Albert, or his illegitimate brother Prince Jacob. The problem seems to work itself out when Jacob betrays the kingdom and gets himself killed, but King Victor throws a curve ball by declaring his heir will be daughter, Princess Audelie, instead.
• Surprise Pregnancy: Bianca finds out she's pregnant after Zachary goes off to fight the war against Aragorn.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: In her first life, Bianca had an affair with the minstrel Fernand, to escape the pain of being trapped in an arranged marriage. She genuinely loved him, but he eventually abandoned her once he'd had his fun. It's heavily implied he was paid to seduce her by Viscount Hugues, in order to ruin her reputation, making her an even bigger victim.
• Technicolor Eyes:
  • Zachary - Silver.
  • Vincent - Lavender.
  • Evangeline - Gold.
• Time Travel for Fun and Profit: Bianca capitalizes on her knowledge that lace will become trendy in the future, by setting up a lace-tatting workshop in Arno.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Bianca. She's originally haughty and self-centered, but as her attempts to change the future force her to interact with more people, she genuinely starts to care for them and become a kinder, more considerate person.
• The Tourney: A jousting tournament is held in the capital to celebrate Prince Albert’s engagement. Zachary, Joachim, Robert, Sauveur, Gaspard, and Prince Jacob all compete. Zachary wins.
• Traumatic Haircut: Bianca cuts off her own hair with a dagger in order to escape Jacob's grasp in Episode 75.
• Uptown Girl: Catherine and Marceau’s love story in the epilogues reveal he was the bastard son of a merchant family. The only reason he was able to marry into the D’aboville family is that the Count needed a male heir to inherit his title.
• The Usurper: Prince Jacob is conspiring with the enemy kingdom of Aragon to help him steal the throne from his brother.
• Villainous Crush: Prince Jacob develops an obsessive infatuation with Bianca that spirals into him deciding to launch a war against Arno in order to have her.
• World of Technicolor Hair: Several characters have silver hair, including Zachary, his brother Roland, Gaspard, and both Gaspard’s son Gaston and Zachary's daughter Alec.