The Saint is Better off as a Villainess

There was a girl that was the target of everyone’s affection. She was an orphan that was taken in by the church when she was 8. When she was 11, the church appointed her as a Saint because of her skill in Holy Magic. They taught her to always self-sacrifice with a smile on her face. “You’re the only one who can save us” She repeated the words she was told over and over in her head, even as she coughed blood from overwork. “As reward for your dedication to this country, you will marry the Crown Prince and become the mother of this country.” Only when she was bleeding out and saw her life flash before her eyes, did she realize. ‘Ah, I was just being used this whole time.’ She never asked to work 18 hour days when she was 11 years old. ‘Would they have still loved me if I didn’t obey their every word?’ ‘Did they ever care if I was happy?’ ‘Did I misinterpret everyone’s kindness towards me? Did they not really love me?’ She thought if she worked hard everyone would cherish her. ‘But in the end, that person let me sacrifice myself.’ The Saint thought, ‘If I live again, I won’t be kind just to placate others. I’ll be kind when I want, I’ll be rude when I want, I won’t tolerate people who want to take advantage of me.’ As she bled out on the cold ground, she felt nothing but regret. Rather than a Saint who only exists to serve others, I rather be a Villainess who is served. As she sacrificed herself, she laid a fatal blow on her murderer. It was just the two of them left now. That person bent over and looked into her eyes. Her murderer was the first one to look at her with sympathy. “We both...should have made better choices, huh?” He choked on his own blood as he laughed with self-deprecation. “Do you regret what you’ve done?” “It’s only in death I have clarity, aren’t you the same, miss?” He wrote blood sigils on the Saint’s skin with the last of his life energy. When the girl opened her eyes again, she was no longer bleeding out. She was also no longer a Saint. She was a young orphan living on her own again, but she felt freer than she had her entire life. She had nothing, not even her shackles. The story of a Saint who becomes a villainess to fulfill her newfound desires.