The witch of the dark forest was called Hazel, and she had not been a witch for very long.
After a tragic drowning accident, she had been transported into another world and turned into the wicked witch from a fairy tale. To adapt to her new life, she tried everything she could think of, even baking her own gingerbread man cookies by hand. But it was exactly because she handed out cookies to visitors that the rumor spread everywhere. The witch of the dark forest baked human flesh.
From then on, Hazel was branded a man-eating witch, and no one dared come anywhere near her. After days of careful thought, Hazel decided to remodel her house into an adorable candy cottage. She hoped that doing so would erase everyone's prejudice against her. But reality was nothing like her dreams. No one cared to give it a second thought, and people still shrank back in fear whenever they saw her.
From then on, Hazel's life became unbearably lonely. She could only cast little spells on her cookies to entertain herself and ease the loneliness. Luckily, the previous owner of this body had once used a forbidden soul swap spell, leaving behind a cat and a dog whose souls had been switched with each other. The kitten was named Daisy, but she carried the soul of a puppy. The puppy, in turn, carried the soul of a kitten instead.
Her peaceful, uneventful days finally came to an end today. Hazel discovered two children sneaking around outside her window, trying to steal food. The boy hadn't had a proper meal in so long that he wolfed the food down until he was moved to tears. But his older sister quickly clamped a hand over his mouth.
"Shh. Quiet down. This is the house of the man-eating witch."
Hazel looked at the two adorable children before her and quietly guessed they might be the protagonists of the novel. In her past life, besides working as a kindergarten teacher, Hazel had a little-known side job. She worked part-time as an illustrator. Back when she happily drew the witch character, she never imagined she'd one day be transported into that very character and even run into the story's two main leads face to face.
Feeling playful, she used magic to lift the two children into the air, making them jump in surprise. "No matter what, you two shouldn't call someone you've just met a man-eating witch, don't you think?"
The girl bravely stepped forward to shield her little brother. "Put us down right now. Do you even know who we are?"
The boy, meanwhile, looked at Hazel timidly and mumbled in a tiny voice, "Please don't eat me. My meat's no good, anyway."
The sight of him still clutching his cookie with both hands left Hazel not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "So, you two ate my house. Don't you think you should say thank you? But a naughty child who doesn't know how to say thank you will be punished, you know."
The girl panicked and instinctively hugged her brother tight. When she saw Hazel pick up a fork, the girl went pale with fear. Seeing the two of them trembling like leaves, Hazel decided to stop teasing them.
"So, here's the deal. I'll give you two choices. One, you become my dinner today. Two, you sit down and have cake with me."
The moment they saw the tempting cake, both children's eyes lit up. But they still tried to act tough on the outside. "You think we're that easy to fool?"
And yet just a little while later, the two siblings were sitting obediently at the table. Hazel brought out a freshly baked carrot cake. The children immediately scrunched up their faces. "We don't like carrots."
With the skills of a seasoned kindergarten teacher, Hazel knew exactly how to win kids over. She used magic to bring a little cookie boy to life and had him trot right up to the carrot. "The noble gentleman says, 'Carrots taste amazing, you know.'"
So the two children eagerly dug in, gobbling it all up.
The girl introduced herself as Luna, age seven, and her little brother as Luca, age five. And both of them had been abandoned by their own birth parents. This suddenly brought back memories of Hazel's own hard childhood. She couldn't help but feel a pang of sorrow looking at the two children before her. How could anyone be so heartless as to abandon such adorable children? Even not knowing for certain whether they were truly the protagonists, and even knowing she might someday be killed off by them, for now all she wanted was to be a kind, gentle witch and pour all her love into taking care of them.
After finishing off the cake, Luna timidly asked Hazel, "Are you planning to fatten us up before eating us? Are these cookies made from human flesh, too?"
Hazel quickly changed the subject and hurried the kids off to take a bath.
"So you're going to wash us clean before roasting us, right?"
Hazel burst out laughing. "Have you two ever seen anyone dress a roast chicken in clothes before?"
To her surprise, Luna innocently replied that they'd never even gotten to eat roast chicken before. Hazel felt a pang of sympathy, assuming they must have come from a poor family. She gently stroked their heads to comfort them, then sent the two off to bed.
A little while later, the siblings lay peacefully in the soft, cozy bed. The little brother whispered, "That witch doesn't seem so scary after all, does she, sis?"
Standing outside the door, Hazel overheard the children's conversation. After telling them to sleep well, she happily walked away. Oh, having children to keep her company in this lonely life. It really did feel wonderful.
Early the next morning, Luna grimaced when she saw that her little brother, Luca, had wet the bed again. She crept outside to scope out the situation, wondering whether this was her chance to make a run for it. The moment she stepped outside, she spotted Hazel hiding behind a tree by the house. Up ahead, two people seemed to be gossiping about something happening in the village.
"Word is the Grand Duke has lost his mind."
Hazel vaguely recalled that there was only one Grand Duke in this world. He had inherited the title after his parents passed away young, and thanks to his outstanding abilities, he had never been shaken by war.
Just then, the two people up ahead noticed Hazel standing behind them. They panicked instantly. "The man-eating witch is right behind us. Run."
Hazel hurried forward to explain it was all just a baseless rumor, but no one stayed to hear her out.
Inside the house, Luna had witnessed the whole thing. She decided not to run away after all, and instead ran to call Hazel back. "Luca accidentally wet the bed. Could you — could you help us out?"
The moment she went upstairs, she found the little one sniffling and mumbling an apology through hiccups. "I'm sorry. I'm five and I still wet the bed."
"That's just a puddle left by a water spirit, I swear. He's probably just tense from sleeping somewhere unfamiliar."
Luca mumbled in his defense that it was because Lulu wasn't here. But his sister exposed him without mercy. "You wet the bed even with Lulu around."
Lulu was the stuffed rabbit from their old home. Hazel thought to herself that she could use a teleportation spell to bring the rabbit back for him. But Luna immediately clapped a hand over her brother's mouth. "We don't have a home. Our house burned down. That's why we had to come here."
Hearing that, Hazel felt an odd unease, like something wasn't quite right. But she didn't press further and went off to hang the laundry instead. To her surprise, little Luca trailed along after her. "You're not mad at us, are you? You won't eat me, right?"
Hazel teased him, saying that later she'd take him mushroom picking in the forest, and that she wouldn't be catching little ones today. Hearing that only made the boy shake even more.
Once the laundry was done, the two little ones tagged along behind Hazel into the forest. "You two go over there and pick me ten mushrooms."
"Okay."
The children were thrilled, eyes wide and mouths agape as they looked all around. This was the first time they'd ever seen mushrooms growing straight from the ground. Back home, the siblings had always been locked up inside.
Hazel never imagined the children's circumstances could be this pitiful. Locking children up inside the house — isn't that abuse? No matter how far their parents came looking for them, she was determined never to let those people take the children away. So she decided that tomorrow she'd take the two of them down to the village. They'd get to eat delicious food and even watch a street performance. She'd buy them beautiful new clothes and let them experience everything they'd never gotten to do before.
In the middle of the fun, Luca let something slip. "If only our big brother were here to play with us, too. That would be so nice."
Sure enough, the story about their house burning down had just been a lie. Just how dire must their situation have been for someone to abandon two such tiny children?