CONTRACT OR LOVE.
Chapter 10
PAIRING: Killua Zoldyck × Female OC.
SYNOPSIS: after Isaac Netero’s death, an old contract forces his granddaughter into an arranged marriage with Killua Zoldyck—the heir of the world’s most feared assassin family. Neither of them wanted this life, but duty leaves little room for choice.
THEMES: duty over desire, inherited trauma, emotional isolation, identity, survival, slow healing, complicated family dynamics, romance that grows in silence.
WARNINGS: canon-typical violence, emotional manipulation, unhealthy family relationships, psychological themes, slow burn.
CONTENT: arranged marriage, Killua Zoldyck × female OC, slow burn, psychological drama, family expectations, emotional repression, trauma, political intrigue, found humanity, healing, angst, eventual romance.
✦ STATUS CHAPTERS: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12...ongoing.
This wing truly resembled a medical office—far more austere than I had imagined.
There were no paintings.
No decorations.
Only dark wooden furniture, an examination table covered with an immaculate white sheet, and a desk neatly arranged with perfectly organized medical files.
The scent of disinfectant lingered in the air.
Everything was so clean it almost felt cold.
The doctor stood beside the desk, reviewing several documents while adjusting his glasses with meticulous precision. Gray had begun to appear at his temples, and every movement reflected decades of experience. When he finally looked up at me, he gave a slight nod.
“Good morning.”
I returned the greeting with the same courtesy.
“Please, have a seat.”
I obeyed without saying a word.
The doctor opened a folder bearing my name.
“These evaluations will be conducted regularly. Today we’ll perform a general physical examination along with several routine tests.”
His tone was entirely professional.
As though there was nothing unusual about any of this.
He measured my blood pressure.
Listened to my heartbeat for several moments.
Checked my reflexes, breathing, and the mobility of my joints.
Afterward, he asked a few brief questions about my diet, my sleeping habits, and whether I had experienced any discomfort since arriving at the mansion.
I answered each one.
He recorded every response with almost mechanical precision.
Finally, he closed the file.
“The physical examination is complete. We’ll now proceed with a routine X-ray.”
I frowned slightly.
“An X-ray?”
“It’s part of the protocol established by the Zoldyck family before compiling a complete medical record.”
I nodded silently.
Just then, someone knocked on the door.
Three sharp knocks.
The doctor looked up.
“Come in.”
The door slowly opened.
Killua stepped inside with his hands in his pockets. His expression was as calm as ever, though there was something in his eyes I couldn’t quite decipher.
The doctor seemed surprised.
“Master Killua…”
He stopped a few steps inside the room.
“I wasn’t informed about this examination.”
It wasn’t a question.
It was a statement.
The doctor adjusted his glasses.
“Lady Kikyo requested that the evaluation begin this morning. Everything had been prepared since yesterday.”
Killua remained silent for a few seconds.
Then he glanced at me.
Only for an instant.
He looked back at the doctor.
“I’ll stay.”
The room fell silent.
The doctor hesitated.
“Normally…”
He never finished the sentence.
Killua held his gaze with perfect composure.
“She’s my wife.”
There was no arrogance in his voice.
Only certainty.
The kind that left no room for argument.
“I understand.”
The doctor said nothing more.
Killua walked a few steps forward and remained near one of the walls, neither intruding on the doctor’s workspace nor standing too close to me.
Yet somehow, the office no longer felt quite as cold as it had only moments before.
-
The doctor gestured toward a door leading into another room.
“This way, please.”
The adjoining room was smaller.
At its center stood a large, sturdy X-ray machine. The walls were lined with pale panels, and the air carried the scent of metal and disinfectant.
The doctor instructed me where to stand.
“I’ll need you to remain completely still.”
The examination ended only a few minutes later.
The doctor removed the X-ray plate with calm, practiced movements and placed it onto an illuminated viewing panel.
At first, he simply stared at it.
Then he narrowed his eyes.
He leaned closer.
His brow furrowed.
He removed the film.
Placed it back again.
Picked up another.
Compared the two.
His expression changed—only for a brief instant.
So subtly that anyone else would have overlooked it.
Anyone…
Except Killua.
From the back of the room, he wasn’t watching the images.
He was watching the doctor.
And for the very first time since entering the room, the man had lost his composure.
-
The doctor removed the final film from the illuminated panel and carefully placed it inside a folder.
When he looked back at us, his expression had returned to normal.
Calm.
Professional.
As though nothing had happened.
“That concludes today’s examination.”
He began organizing the documents on the desk with precise movements.
“I’ll need to review the images more thoroughly before completing the medical report.”
He closed the folder.
“Once the results are ready, the family will be informed.”
I nodded silently.
There seemed to be no reason to ask anything further.
The doctor opened the office door.
“You may leave.”
I stepped into the hallway.
Silence once again settled over the mansion’s endless corridors.
I had taken several steps before stopping.
I hadn’t heard Killua follow me.
I turned my head slightly.
He was still standing beside the office door. I hadn’t even noticed when he had stopped. As always, his movements were so quiet it seemed as though he could vanish without leaving a trace.
Our eyes met for only a moment.
“Go back to the room.”
His voice was calm.
“Amane will be waiting for you.”
He offered no explanation.
Nor did he wait for a reply.
He simply held my gaze for another second.
I nodded.
Then turned around and continued walking down the corridor.
The echo of my footsteps gradually faded away.
Only after I disappeared around the corner did the office door close once again with a soft click.
Inside, the silence felt entirely different.
The doctor remained motionless, one hand resting on the folder containing the X-rays.
He didn’t look up immediately.
Killua was the first to speak.
“What did you see?”
The doctor remained silent before slowly raising his head. For several long seconds, neither of them spoke.
Finally, the doctor broke the silence.
“Master Killua…”
He paused briefly.
“There’s something in those X-rays that shouldn’t be there.”
The doctor opened the folder once more and removed one of the films.
He placed it on the illuminated panel.
The image lit up the room again.
He pointed toward a small area near the chest.
“This doesn’t belong inside a human body.”
Killua stepped closer.
He studied the image without speaking.
He wasn’t a doctor.
He couldn’t interpret every detail.
But even to him, it was obvious that a clearly defined structure existed where none should.
The doctor continued, almost speaking to himself.
“It can’t be a prosthetic…”
He slowly shook his head.
“Nor a pacemaker.”
Silence followed.
He picked up another X-ray.
Compared the two.
The same object appeared in exactly the same place.
It wasn’t a defect in the film.
It wasn’t an equipment malfunction.
It was real.
Killua shifted his gaze from the images to the doctor.
“You already know what it is.”
It wasn’t a question.
The doctor remained silent, still gripping the X-ray.
“I’ve never seen one in person.”
He paused.
“Only classified photographs and technical schematics during my medical training.”
The next words were difficult to say.
“But its shape… matches.”
He took a slow breath before finishing.
“If I’m not mistaken… someone implanted a Miniature Rose inside her body many years ago.”
Killua remained perfectly still before the illuminated panel.
His eyes never left the X-ray.
Neither of them spoke for several long seconds.
The faint hum of the viewing panel was the only sound in the room.
Finally, Killua broke the silence.
“Are you certain?”
The doctor didn’t answer immediately.
He picked up another film.
Compared it once again.
Then slowly closed the folder.
“In medicine, we’re taught never to confirm something extraordinary unless we’re absolutely certain.”
He paused.
“That’s why I repeated the examination.”
His fingers tightened around the file.
“And the result was exactly the same.”
Killua remained silent.
“There is no doubt. An object has been implanted inside her body.”
The doctor looked up.
“And judging by its shape… it can only be a Miniature Rose.”
Killua didn’t take his eyes off the X-ray.
His expression barely changed.
Only his eyes grew colder.
The name alone was enough.
Miniature Rose.
Killua knew exactly what it meant.
He had heard about it since childhood.
It wasn’t merely an explosive.
It was a weapon created to guarantee death.
Even those who survived the initial blast eventually succumbed to the deadly poison it released afterward.
For several long moments, silence consumed the room.
One question slowly forced its way through all the others.
Why?
Why would someone implant a Miniature Rose inside her body?
And more importantly…
Why had that very person been married into the Zoldyck family?
His thoughts immediately returned to the contract.
It had been signed many years ago.
Long before he had even been born.
By Maha Zoldyck.
Maha was not a man who left anything to chance.
Every decision served a purpose.
Every condition existed for a reason.
So…
Did he know?
Did Maha already know about the bomb when he accepted the agreement?
If the answer was yes…
Everything changed.
Because that would mean he had knowingly bound the Zoldyck family to someone capable of becoming a threat to them all.
No.
Killua frowned slightly.
It didn’t make sense.
A Miniature Rose was far too dangerous.
No Zoldyck would accept such a risk without gaining something in return.
Another possibility began taking shape.
Perhaps…
The bomb wasn’t a threat to the family.
Perhaps it was the exact opposite.
A guarantee.
If anyone ever tried to kill her…
If anyone decided to eliminate her…
The consequences would be catastrophic.
The price would be far too high.
The Rose transformed any attempt on her life into a death sentence for the attacker.
It was insurance.
A warning.
A message.
Killua remained motionless.
Then another thought crossed his mind.
Alluka.
He remembered the disaster caused by Nanika.
The deaths.
The chaos.
How effortlessly a single person could alter the fate of everyone around them.
Now another danger stood before him.
Different.
Yet just as devastating.
He slowly lowered his gaze.
No…
This was even worse.
Because Nanika was unpredictable.
The Rose, on the other hand, had been placed there deliberately.
Someone had intentionally turned a little girl into a weapon.
And that thought disturbed him far more than the bomb itself.
“I have to report this to the family,” the doctor finally said. “This is a situation that—”
“No.”
Killua’s voice cut him off.
Calm.
Firm.
The doctor looked up.
“Master Killua, surely you understand that—”
“No one will know what you’ve just seen.”
Silence once again filled the office.
The doctor hesitated.
“But Master Silva… Lady Kikyo…”
“No one.”
Killua stepped toward the desk.
His expression remained composed.
It was precisely that calmness that made his words so unsettling.
“The X-rays will remain here.”
“The report will be identical to any ordinary routine examination.”
The doctor swallowed.
“That would mean falsifying a medical record.”
“Yes.”
Killua never looked away.
“And you will do it.”
A chill ran down the doctor’s spine.
He had treated the Zoldyck family for many years.
He knew exactly who they were.
And he also knew that their threats were never empty.
Killua spoke one final time.
“If I find out that a single word of this conversation reaches my father…”
He paused.
“If anyone else learns about this…”
His eyes turned cold.
Expressionless.
“Don’t make me deal with it.”
The doctor stood completely still.
There was no anger.
No hatred.
The doctor understood there was no room for negotiation.
Slowly, he lowered his head.
“…Understood.”
Killua held his gaze for a few more seconds.
Then he turned away.
Without another word.
He opened the door.
And walked out.