I’m on my Betrayal trip again, wanted to see if any of you have some recommendations. What I want is basically a betrayal fix but one where the “betrayers” don’t feel the “regret” that comes with the MC suddenly gaining power/wealth etc but instead feel regret because they realize that they appreciated the MC. It’s a little hard to put in words but I want the regret not to be as shallow as just envying the MC’s money or status. Maybe to put it better, ill give a possible model. Imagine a lover betrays the MC for some benefit somewhere else, but after receiving the benefit the lover remembers the good times with the MC and begins to feel bad and tries to get back to the MC. I prefer power couples greatly over harems. Apart from that, I can read most tropes or genres and don’t mind whatever the rest of the story would look like. The betrayal doesn’t need to be the central pillar of the story.
I'm not sure if you read BL, but there's this story that is exactly what you're looking for. It's the 4th arc of QWFOD. The ex-lover regretted what he did to MC after he knew how much MC had sacrificed for him and tried to get him back, but it was all too late. If you're interested, you can check it out
So you want the betrayer to feel genuine remorse, rather than just jealousy over the protagonist sudden status increase. Personally I think that would make a very good premise, but you'll probably have a hard time finding it. A lot of these stories prefer to make their villains very one dimensional, and readers expect the betrayer to have a miserable end. Even if an author tried to write a remorseful betrayer most readers would refuse to accept it. They might even get belligerent and insist the betrayer isn't really repentant, especially if that person was the protagonist former lover. What I would love to see is a time travel story with this premise. Like the protagonist is betrayed by their lover, and eventually dies because of said betrayal. The betrayer comes to realize the error of their ways, and tries to make amends only to find out the protagonist is dead. Then time resets back with both parties keeping their memories, but being unaware that the other side remembers. With the protagonist vowing to avoid the betrayer, and the remorseful betrayer vowing to dedicate their life to the protagonist.
So, this one doesn't technically count because it was a set up from the beginning. The protagonist led the betrayer down that path. Technically the betrayal could have been avoided but the protagonist wanted to "punsih" the betrayer. Also, I'm not sure you can call it a betrayal technically. The protagonist didn't care about the betrayer or betrayal in the first place and was technically not even the one who was betrayed.
I didn't read the novel (give name pls) but I think that its the same feeling whether it was plotted or natural. Hmmm lemme guess, Japanese?
Hey I read a good portion of this story, though I dropped it after a while. I can't really recall any betrayal, at least not anything in the beginning. Can you tell me when the betrayal happens, and who does it. I stopped reading around the time he leaves the death forest for the first time and goes to the capital.
Quickly wear the Face Of the Devil is its name. And, it's a quick transmigration story that's fairly well received by the fujoshis/fudanshis/and bl lovers in general. It has it's issue but definitely deserves a recommendation. Several of its arcs are pretty interesting, though there are some major flaws in the story as a whole. 3.5/5 rating (from my own personally strict opinion.)