Two people who have spent years trying to beat each other sign a marriage contract, and the point of it is to keep a third person alive.
That's the setup of In the Name of Special Contract Marriage (Korean title 특급 계약 결혼의 말로), a romance fantasy web novel credited to Sean Kim. Aracilla has a dream that shows her the future: her sister goes through with an arranged marriage, and dies. So Aracilla moves first. She marries Damian, the younger brother of the man her sister was meant to wed. The catch is that Damian is her rival. One of them is a magician and the other a knight, and nobody expected them to sit at the same table, let alone share a name.
NanoReads doesn't host this book, and we haven't found an official English edition of the novel. Everything below comes from Korean and English listings and the manhwa's public pages, and we say so where we're less sure.
The sister clause
Most contract-marriage plots are about the two people signing: one needs money, the other needs a wife on paper, and the contract is a business deal they'll break by falling in love. This one has a third party built in. Aracilla isn't marrying to gain something. She's marrying to take a slot so her sister never fills it.
That changes what the contract is for. In the usual version, the terms are a wall between the leads, and the fun is watching it crack. Here the terms are a shield pointed outward, at a future only Aracilla has seen. Damian gets a wife he can't stand. Whether he ever learns her real reason, the blurbs don't say, and that question alone carries a lot of chapters.
It also explains why rivals work so well for this. You don't need to like someone to sign with them. You need them to be useful and to hold up their end, and a long-time rival is the one person whose strength you've already measured. The romance, when it comes, has to grow out of respect first. If that's the part you like, the enemies-to-lovers hub is built around it.
What we could confirm
- Original
- Korean web novel, 특급 계약 결혼의 말로, credited to Sean Kim (션Kim)
- Genre
- Romance fantasy, with comedy and drama tags
- Leads
- Aracilla and Damian, rivals (a magician and a knight)
- Length
- Listed on NovelUpdates as 191 chapters plus 20 side stories, complete. We saw that figure in a search summary and couldn't open the page itself, so treat it as approximate
- Manhwa
- Adapted as a webtoon in 2025, still running. Also seen as In a Special Contract's Name
- Official English
- None we could confirm for the novel. Fan translations exist; we don't link them
If an official English release turns up, we'll update this page.
Heat level
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️Not rated: no mature tag on the listings we found
Korean romance fantasy of this kind often keeps the page closed-door and spends its heat on tension instead, but we haven't read enough of this one to promise that. The spoiler-free summary has death (the sister's, in the vision), arranged marriage and court politics. For anything else, check the platform you read it on, or run a book you're curious about through our spice level checker.
Which clause are you here for?
Pick the part of the premise that hooked you and jump to the match:
📜Five contracts to read free
All →-
Clause: ninety days, no killingBlood Contract
Mila and Bastián are rival mercenaries who've sabotaged each other for years. Their guild makes them pose as a married couple at a treacherous court, joined by magic rings that won't let them drift apart. The closest thing on this list to Aracilla and Damian.
Read chapter 1 free → -
Clause: custody of SophieHis Contract, My Secret
A broke librarian answers an ad for a one-year contract marriage so she looks stable enough to win custody of her little sister. Separate rooms, strict rules, and a husband who is hiding something. Same reason to sign, contemporary setting.
Start it free → -
Clause: steal the cureThrone of Shadow and Mist
Not a marriage plot, but the same engine: the mist is rotting Isolde's sister's lungs, so she walks into the palace under a stolen name. Prince Damon Grimm sees through the disguise. For readers who came for the fantasy court.
Open chapter one → -
Clause: one year, save the bakeryThe Grump's Fake Bride
Isla marries a stranger for a year so a corporation backs off her bakery. Caleb is grumpy, protective and clearly not telling her everything. Lighter in tone, with the secret-reason structure intact.
Read chapter 1 free → -
Clause: close the dealBe My Wife Today
Lena gets pulled out of the typing pool to play the wife of a brash CEO until a business deal closes. Twenty chapters, so you can finish it while you wait for the next manhwa episode.
Try it free →
If it's the manhwa you're after
Plenty of readers find this story through the webtoon first. We keep a list of marriage-of-convenience manhwa with the platforms that publish each one in English. If "romance fantasy" is a new label for you, our romantasy glossary entry covers the closest English-language label for it.
Two more contract-marriage title pages on NanoReads: Mother's Contract Marriage and Contract Marriage with the Arms Tycoon.