There’s a I guess you could call niche? trope? in some fantasy anime/manga where the protagonist is actively trying to be a villain but is constantly being misunderstood by the people as being some sort of saint.

I can think of two different ones from the top of my head, one called “I’m the Evil Lord from an Intergalactic Empire” and another called “The Mistaken Saintly Life of a Villainous Scion”, the former fitting closer to what you asked for than the latter. Note, however, that I am not recommending either of them. The former is entertaining enough and I haven’t read the manga to give an opinion on it, but the anime isn’t that big of a deal imo, whereas the latter is just straight up trash.