I Became the Traitor Who Ruined the RoFan (1)
My head hurt. Like it was about to split open. Wait, did it actually split? Everything in front of me was blurry, as if someone had really smashed the back of my skull with a club. My molars felt loose inside my mouth, and the stench of mud stabbed at my nose.
“Ugh……!”
I groaned and tried to rub my eyes to clear my vision. It won’t move… My hands wouldn’t budge. That was when two soldiers carrying spears approached and forcibly hauled me to my feet.
“Stand up!”
My body was dragged forward roughly, against my will.
“Walk properly, you defeated general!”
Thud!
“Ugh!”
A rough voice accompanied a kick to my back. The impact sent me stumbling forward, and my knees slammed into the muddy ground.
Splat.
The cold sensation of mud against my cheek finally sharpened my blurry vision. The first thing I noticed was the rope tied around my stomach. Following the rope with my eyes, I saw my hands bound behind my back.
No wonder my arms wouldn’t move! The rope dug into my wrists so tightly that blood couldn’t circulate. Then, slowly, I lifted my head.
What the hell is that!
I couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath. Right in front of me stood a massive wooden block, easily ten times the size of a normal headrest. Guessing its purpose wasn’t difficult at all. Especially not when a man holding an axe stood over it, staring down at me with an expressionless face.
…An execution stand?
I’d just woken up, and there was already an axe waiting to chop off my head? While I stared blankly at the blade, trying to make sense of the situation, agonized screams erupted from behind me.
“General Lassen! Sob! You Valerian bastards!”
“Kill me first! Don’t humiliate our general!”
The voices were thick with grief and rage. I glanced back and saw men, disarmed and bound with ropes just like me, kneeling on the dirt. Every single one of them had tears streaming down their faces as they shouted toward me.
My brain, frozen in shock, struggled to process the situation. Valerian? Lassen? General? Those names sounded familiar.
Valerian… Valerian Kingdom? Don’t tell me I’m inside the novel I was reading…
The romance fantasy novel I’d been reading until I fell asleep last night. The male lead, Prince Michael, came from the Valerian Kingdom. The title was If We Divorce, War Breaks Out - Political Marriage.
Judging by the title, you’d think it was some bloody political drama…
But in reality, it was a frustratingly wholesome misunderstanding-filled healing romance. The original story’s background went like this: The Valerian Kingdom and the Utopia Kingdom had been locked in a horrific, bloody war for years. When the conflict reached a stalemate, both nations—unable to withstand the massive drain on their resources—arranged a political marriage under the guise of a ceasefire. The sacrificial lambs were Valerian’s First Prince Michael and Utopia’s Princess Juno.
The two signed a contract on their wedding night stating that this was strictly business for their countries. They were allowed to maintain separate private lives and even keep lovers. It sounded like a very cool, mature adult arrangement. In truth, it was anything but.
Both of them were complete novices at romance with zero dating experience, and their personalities were nothing but stubborn pride. They’d loudly declared they’d allow each other lovers, but the moment someone of the opposite sex approached their partner, they’d burn with jealousy. On the surface they’d snap, “Hmph, I’m merely showing basic courtesy as a business partner,” while secretly bringing each other supplements, blocking assassins, and causing all kinds of chaos.
From the readers’ perspective, it was the classic sweet romance novel that made you clutch your chest and scream, “Just date already! Stop playing this staring contest over who’ll confess first!”
In the midst of all that, there was a subplot about the struggle for the Valerian throne, sprinkled in like seasoning.
Yeah, I remember up to that point. But… who the hell is Lassen?
The name of the body I seemed to have transmigrated into. I knew Valerian and Utopia, but Lassen didn’t ring any bells. While I was frantically digging through my memories in confusion, heavy footsteps approached.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The Valerian soldiers surrounding us parted in unison. Through the gap walked a massive man, his cloak billowing behind him.
I recognize that guy…
He had a solid, muscular build covered in scars. The man, who appeared to be the enemy’s supreme commander, strode right up to me and stopped. Then he opened his heavy-looking lips.
“To think that Utopia’s Holy Spear would eventually kneel in the mud at my feet.”
Utopia’s Holy Spear? Before I could even feel second-hand embarrassment at that chuuni title, the bound soldiers behind me burst into howls again.
“Damn you, Sabre! Shut your mouth! How dare a bastard like you try to humiliate General Lassen!”
“Sabre! I’ll rip your throat out and drag you to hell!”
Aha. So that’s Sabre.
I secretly sent them a silent thank you in my mind. Guys, I really appreciate it. Thanks to you, I learned that scary uncle’s name is Sabre.
Sabre. The moment I heard the name, it felt like a clogged blood vessel in my memory had burst open. He was a mid-story antagonist in the original novel If We Divorce, War Breaks Out - Political Marriage. After the protagonists’ political marriage brought a temporary end to the war, he feared losing his influence and constantly tried to drive a wedge between them to restart the conflict. He was the leader of Valerian’s warmonger faction.
Yet he wasn’t hated by readers. He was a warrior to the bone. While he craved war, he preferred honorable clashes of strength over cowardly tricks. Above all, he held deep respect for the enemy generals of Utopia he had fought with his life on the line. Secretly, he would use his own funds to support the families of fallen Utopia generals.
Wait. Among the Utopia generals Sabre respected… one of them was Utopia’s Holy Spear, Lassen…?
He was a character mentioned in just a single line during a flashback scene at the beginning of the novel that explained the world-building.
The tide of war completely changed after the death of Lassen, the commander of the special forces known as Utopia’s Holy Spear.
The chaotic back-and-forth battles disappeared. Having lost Lassen, Utopia switched to a thorough defensive stance, and the war devolved into a tedious war of attrition.
That’s right! That was it!
A tragic hero who died before the main story even began, reduced to a single line in the history books. He had been Utopia’s greatest military asset in the early stages of the war. Had the conflict ended then, he would have been at the very top of the list for honors and rewards—a savior of the nation. And that person… was me?
“Truly a cruel fate, isn’t it, Lassen?”
Whether he knew of my inner turmoil or not, Sabre muttered in a heavy voice.
“No matter how much you carved away your own flesh and bones in loyalty to your homeland, what use was it? Those worm-like creatures who have never once stepped on this filthy mud, hiding behind skirts within the palace walls, decided to break Utopia’s Holy Spear themselves.”
At Sabre’s tongue-clicking words, the bound soldiers behind me lowered their heads and began to sob. Hearing that, the circumstances of Lassen’s death that I had only skimmed over in the original novel came back to me.
In the novel, it first said Lassen died from recklessly pushing a mobile battle despite being outnumbered.
Later, Sabre himself revealed the truth. It was because of internal enemies within Utopia. Lassen, a commoner who had crawled up from the bottom and achieved victory after victory. The central nobles of Utopia, terrified of the fame and power he would gain once the war ended, along with his superior who had taken him in, had conspired to send him to his death.
They completely cut off supplies to the special forces Lassen led. No food, no weapons, no reinforcements. On top of that, they issued absurd, reckless orders to launch surprise attacks straight into the heart of the enemy lines. Lassen knew these orders were traps meant to kill him, yet he carried out the foolish commands in silence, driven only by his honor as a soldier and his loyalty to his country. In the end, he reached his limit and ended up kneeling before Sabre like this.
“How boring. I wanted to cross blades with you for much longer,” Sabre said, slowly drawing the sword from his waist.
“Lassen. When I think of my subordinates who died pierced by that damned spear of yours, I should have your head chopped off with that axe right now and hung on my banner.”
Sabre’s eyes gleamed fiercely.
“However… I have grown greedy.”
“…Greedy?”
The word slipped from my lips before I could stop it. It was my voice, but it sounded hoarse, as if I hadn’t eaten or spoken for days. Sabre took one step closer and extended a large hand.
“The greed to wield Utopia’s Holy Spear with my own hands.”
The enemy commander’s proposal was clear. He was telling me to surrender to him.
“Bow your head to me, Lassen. If you become my spear and fight for Valerian, I will spare the lives of your men.”
Sabre had made an extraordinary offer to his enemy, Lassen. In the original setting, although Sabre was a warmonger, he was a man of honor. There were scenes where he didn’t massacre captured prisoners but instead put them to honest labor and secretly released them after the war.
He probably isn’t just saying empty words.
In this scene from the original novel, how had the real Lassen responded to Sabre’s offer? A passage from the book replayed in the back of my mind.
The bloodied Lassen let out a sneer toward Sabre.
‘Do you truly believe that the Lassen you saw on the battlefield would turn his spear against Utopia merely to save his own life?’
Lassen slowly raised his head. The blade of the Holy Spear still shone brilliantly.
‘I may break, and my edge may wear away… but I will never bend. Kill me.’
And so Lassen died with his head severed in a heroic manner. As a loyal subject and legendary hero who would remain in Utopia’s history.
From behind me, the solemn voices of my captured subordinates rang out.
“General! Do not concern yourself with our lives!”
“That’s right! We will follow your will!”
“We would rather die as proud soldiers of Utopia than become filthy dogs of Valerian! Please give us the order!”
Ah, what touching camaraderie. These foolishly pure men who were willing to remain loyal to the very country that had thrown them into a trap and abandoned them. Even Sabre seemed moved by their cries; he closed his eyes tightly and wore a solemn expression.
Yes, in a normal situation, a man’s heart should be burning hot with passion. I too should be shouting fiery battle cries alongside them and walking proudly toward the guillotine. There was just one problem.
I’m not Lassen.
Until just moments ago, I had been a 21st-century modern person rolling around in bed reading web novels. There was no way I had any patriotism toward the Utopia Kingdom. I’d never even paid a single tax to this country, so where was this loyalty supposed to come from? Besides, the original owner of this body, Lassen, had been thoroughly used and discarded by Utopia’s trash nobles.
Give my life for a country that abandoned me? If this were South Korea, sure, I’d be loyal! But this is Utopia! That would just make me an idiot.
I finished my situational assessment. There was only one conclusion.
My life came first. I had zero intention of ending up as a nameless corpse in a single-line flashback scene.
I took a deep breath. Then I looked up at Sabre, who was extending his hand toward me and waiting expectantly for some noble answer.
“Indeed. If it were the Lassen I admired, even if his country was unworthy, he would remain loyal until the very……”
The moment Sabre nodded, interpreting my silence as a solemn refusal and continued speaking, I bent my upper body forward as far as the ropes would allow. Then I slammed my forehead into the wet muddy ground with all my strength.
Crunch!
Mud splattered everywhere.
“……?”
“……Huh?”
A sudden silence fell over the execution ground that had been filled with solemn tension just seconds ago. Sabre’s mouth hung half-open, frozen. Even the breathing of the subordinates behind me who had been vowing honorable deaths stopped completely.
With my face still buried in the mud, I shouted in the loudest, clearest voice I could muster from the depths of my stomach.
“I surrender!!”
My thunderous cry split through the air.
“……What… what did you say?”
Sabre’s dumbfounded voice came from above. The subordinates behind me were clearly panicking as well.
“A-as expected of the general…! We too shall follow your will and die honorably for Utopia… Huh? Wait, General? What did you just……?”
To put an end to their denial of reality, I lifted my mud-covered head and looked Sabre straight in the eyes, delivering the finishing blow.
“I have erased Utopia from my mind as of today! I gladly surrender and will become the Holy Spear of the great Valerian and General Sabre! I pledge my loyalty!!”
After all, a spear is only useful when it stabs where its owner points it. Even the most famous spear in history, the Holy Lance of Longinus, was nothing more than a Roman official’s execution tool with zero connection to loyalty when you looked at the original texts. Not bend? If it bends flexibly, it won’t break either. First, I had to survive.
The life my country threw away—I would take care of it myself.
And just like that, the moment I opened my eyes, I became the worst traitor in the history of the Utopia Kingdom.