How Could the Villainous Young Master Be a Saintess?

"That's really too much."

Recalling the discussion of those two middle-aged merchants at the dinner table about her, Winnie felt deeply wronged. Just as she was fuming, she happened to see one of the talkative merchants drop his wallet, and she decided to play a little prank on him.
After all, they were talking behind her back, right?
The rest of it could be ignored, but spreading rumors that she sent body hair and nails to Mirecia?? Isn't that something a pervert would do? Even the former Winnie never sent such disgusting things!

Moreover, how could such a thing be casually rumored? Who would send something so private to someone else??
These rumors would cause trouble for both her and Mirecia!
As for her allegedly stealing a child's lollipop, that's even more ridiculous. The former Winnie was a villain, not a stray dog on the street. Even when a lunatic does something, there's a reason behind it. What could she possibly gain from stealing a child's lollipop? A lollipop covered in someone else's saliva? Just thinking about it is enough to make one sick!

Even a madman wouldn't do something so absurd, right? In her mind, these things didn’t just not happen—they were completely unrelated to her.
The most intolerable part was the rumor that she was a blue-eyed person!
If it weren't for her excellent upbringing stopping her, she really wanted to stand up and ask those two merchants where they got the money to raise a male lover??

In this regard, she and Aeciphysis were allies on the same front—they both liked soft, sweet girls.
The difference was that Aeciphysis liked beautiful ones. As long as someone had high enough looks, this little fairy would spend time conquering them.
She didn't have such high standards. As long as the person was sincere and had mutual feelings, that was enough.

Sure enough, just like in the original story, malicious rumors about Winnie would pop up from time to time. It's unclear who started them, but the nobles in the royal capital were certainly more than happy to fan the flames behind the scenes.
After all, countless nobles had their eyes on Mirecia's beauty, status, wealth, and the supreme power and benefits they would get from marrying the kingdom's first heir. They were desperate to eliminate any competition.
It was an unspoken understanding—how could Winnie dare to pursue Mirecia openly and stubbornly? Wasn't that like showing off her health bar in front of everyone?

These powerful noble heirs didn't even dare to speak out openly. Why didn't she look in the mirror and see what kind of identity she had, whether she was worthy??
Fine, if she didn’t care about her dignity, they’d help her keep it intact.
Thus, with the help of these nobles, her malicious rumors spread further and further, and her reputation naturally worsened.

Although the former Winnie wasn’t exactly a good person, the absurdity of these malicious things escalating into even bigger rumors—these nobles played a huge role in it.
But she never expected that they would be so shameless as to spread rumors that she was bisexual...
Another reason for this was that when the once-glorious Aeciphysis family fell, everyone wanted to kick them when they were down. After all, the Church of Fanghui with Saint Aeciphysis is different from the one without her. Although the Church’s influence still covered all human nations, its deterrent power wasn’t what it once was.
Thus, they were all too happy to tarnish Winnie’s name and completely eradicate the Aeciphysis family’s legitimacy within the Church.

Who exactly was behind this move, though, remained unclear.
Winnie couldn’t dare to make her awakened bloodline public knowledge, which was also why she entered the Kareriman Academy in a proper manner.
For her, revealing the secret of her bloodline awakening would only make her a target, and she might even be killed off by some malevolent forces before she could even get started.

Don’t expect the Church to protect her; she suspected that the main force against her behind the scenes was the Church.
Someone wanted to kick the Saintess out of the Church forever.
But if that were the case, it would be entirely unnecessary.

Winnie sighed lightly.
She really had no interest in the Church of Fanghui or the title of Saintess.
Her self-awareness was very clear, knowing she was just an insignificant NPC in this world without the protagonist’s fate, not blessed by destiny. Her only dream and wish were to graduate smoothly from Kareriman Academy, get a good diploma, find a good job after graduation, hopefully earn a small fief through military achievements, and then live out her life with an NPC girl she felt a connection with. That was all.

Compared to the female protagonists in the story, her vision was truly humble—after all, she knew all too well what would happen to someone who wasn’t a protagonist but got the protagonist's illness.
Moreover, as for being a Saintess, not to mention how awkward it would be if the truth about the Church's Saintess being a man was exposed, just the title alone represented the highest power of the Church—wouldn’t it be extremely dangerous??
She’d always have to be on guard for someone trying to usurp power from within, and whenever there were conflicts between human nations, she'd have to step in to mediate, right?

When the demon race attacked, the Saintess would definitely have to lead the charge and fight the demons, wouldn’t she?
The demons on the continent of Terellis were already ferocious, and she would be on the frontlines. Without the help of a protagonist, she probably wouldn’t last more than a few days before the demons hung her head on the city wall.
If she didn’t die, she’d be captured and face a tragic end. She had seen enough of those little picture books with the Saintess and demon tags in her previous life!

Is this the price for her past life’s actions??
Well, then she certainly couldn’t be the Saintess.
Why draw attention to herself like that? It had nothing to do with her, big or small. If the sky fell, there were people like Aeciphysis, the destined girl with a cheat code, and all the other female protagonists to bear the weight. She just needed to live out her NPC life.

As night fell, there were fewer people on the streets. Winnie carefully and quietly returned to her dilapidated old building and softly closed the door.
It was getting late. She had been busy all day, had settled her meals, and was feeling a bit tired. She wanted to wash up quickly and go to bed.
However, her body seemed to strongly resist being treated so roughly, instinctively protesting against such actions.

She needed a good bath.
But when Winnie reached the bathroom, she suddenly realized a severe problem.
It seemed like the house had no shower gel, shampoo, perfume, or skincare products left.

Well, to be precise, there had never been any.
Apart from shampoo, Winnie never used those fancy, unnecessary things when bathing. The old Winnie was a bit careless and rough around the edges, just like most boys who didn’t buy grooming products for themselves.
This was certainly related to her economic situation, but also because she lacked noble education and thought that a refined lifestyle was troublesome and unnecessary, leading her to not care much about her appearance.

Thinking about how she hadn’t properly taken care of herself in a long time, Winnie felt uncomfortable all over, as if something dirty had sullied her, and it felt like every strand of hair on her body was standing on end.
She knew this was her obsessive-compulsive disorder acting up, and she couldn’t bear this torture. She had no choice but to go out again, heading to a daily necessities shop to carefully select a pile of grooming products.
She came empty-handed but left with a bulging pink backpack.

Yes, this pink little backpack was a gift she received after spending a certain amount.
Honestly, if it weren’t for the experience herself, Winnie wouldn’t have known she was so difficult to please. She forced herself to compare every bottle of lotion, not only comparing effectiveness but also considering cost-effectiveness, and whether it was suitable for her skin and hair. She wouldn’t compromise.
It was like someone tormented by their obsessive-compulsive disorder, wanting to buy something just good enough, but her instincts kept forcing her to make it perfect.

Even more incredible, Winnie had never paid attention to these grooming products exclusive to noble girls, but her choices were unexpectedly sharp, causing the shopkeeper, who was trying to push expensive, impractical products, to break into a sweat and think to himself: "Oh no, this girl isn’t one of those silly, rich, sheltered young ladies."
After spending more than an hour, Winnie was finally satisfied and dragged her exhausted body out of the shop.