How Can You Pay Back The Kindness I Raised With Obsession?

“Whoops!”

As soon as she poked her head out of the water, a rough current rushed in but she still couldn’t breathe.

“What can I do?”

“Call 119!”

She struggled with her limbs, but she was swept away by the river with all nothingness. Her head dipped back into the murky water, and the screams of those standing by the river faded.

“Gu…”

Cough.

Her cry for help made no sound because of the cold water rushing into her lungs.

Why was she so stupid as to junto into the water to save a child when she wasn’t a good swimmer and drowned because of that?

But she had no regrets.

She would return safely to her parents arms that day. So even if she won’t be able to go back home, it was alright.

Soon, her eyes went black. The pain that seemed to tear her lungs slowly dulled, and she felt her body float.

Did her body float in the water? Or was her soul separated from her body?

But she didn’t want to die just yet… There were a lot of things for her to do.

Funnily enough, the first thing that came to her mind was that she had never been in a relationship.

‘I don’t want to die yet!’

The screams of a strange woman rang through her head.

‘Whoops!”

Her eyes lit up as an invisible hand gripped her wrist violently.

“Hah, hah…”

Her breath caught in her throat and she breathed heavily. The breath she had always taken for granted couldn’t be so sweet.

‘Who saved me?’

As her blurred vision slowly became clearer, she saw neither the sunny autumn sky nor the face of her benefactor.

“Ugh, what is it?”

The skeleton thrown from her hand rolled around on the clunky table.

“This is again… What?”

The strange object wasn’t just a skeleton.

On a table strewn with candles and old books, there was a large drawing of a magic circle that she had only seen in fantasy anime.

At her feet, a treasure chest was wide open. She picked up one of the gold coins inside.

“What?”

The imperial emblem on the gold coins was familiar to her.

“This is the gold coin I painted, isn’t it? 

That was ridiculous, she should have died saving that student during a fall picnic in the kindergarten where she worked… But that was not the park where she fell into the river, nor was the underworld.

“Isn’t this from that fairytale?

Looking around, she was once again stunned.

“Heh, this is…”

In the mirror on the wall, a familiar yet strange woman was looking at her with her eyes wide open.

Gently curvy brown hair, emerald eyes, and smooth ivory skin. It was a young woman with a face that anyone would like.

“Witch.”

So she became the evil witch in her fairy tale.

* * *

Her name was Hazel, the Witch of the Black Forest. Originally she had another name, but hadn’t been called with it in years.

Her hobby was baking cookies in the shape of people, and her second hobby was to call people and serve them those cookies. But the people there were too nasty. They would eat them and then run around making a fuss about it in a nasty way.

“Hazel, the Witch of the Black Forest, roasts people!”

Because of that she now had one more name:

Hazel, the cannibal witch of the Black Forest.

After that no one came to her cabin to play and she was lonely. So after much deliberation she decided to use a cute and sweet trap: a house made of sweets that was so cute and sweet that no one could ignore it.

‘Oh, I caught one!’

There was a rusting noise beyond the wide-open kitchen window.

“Yum, yummy…”

She could hear their sound while eating.

She calmed her pounding heart out and peeked out of the window. There, with a basket full of mushrooms at her side, one girl removed a human-shaped ginger cookie from the wall. The girl took a bite from the cookie and then swallowed it.

At that moment, she asked with a smirk.

“Delicious, right? There are more types inside.”

“Shi, it’s a cannibal witch!”

If that was the case, she just ate a cannibal witch cookie, didn’t she? Still, with a lot of patience and kindness she asked…

“Come in…”

“Help!”

The girl struck a rope along the trail by the creek. The fleeing basket rolled over the grass.

The corners of her mouth drooped downwards. But she soon regained her strength and rolled up her sleeves. It was not something new or that happened once or twice.

‘I need to put back on that girl’s grunt.’

With a flick of her index finger, the whisk that had been stirring alone through the large bowl stopped, and alarmed the edge of the bowl. White icing dripped from the whisk into the bowl.

She grabbed the icing bowl in her arms and opened the door to her small, comfortable cabin. A dazzling ray of sunlight poured overhead.

‘Good. It’s the perfect day for tea time.’

Of course, rainy days were rainy and snowy days were snowy, and that was perfect. As everyday was perfect for a drink, that was a good day for tea.

She circled around the cabin and approached the kitchen window. On the open windowsill, a plate of cookies just baked was cooling down.

‘Good. Just right.’

She chuckled as she smeared the icing on the wall and stuck the hard, well-baked cookies.

“What?”

There were dents in one corner of the house. Was it a little below her waist?

‘Who eats that way? Oh, dear. She didn’t even say thank you, did she?’

She gave a pint to the basket that might still be there and put a cookie the size of her face on the spot where the vandal ate.

‘I couldn’t do it today either. So it’s tea time alone.’

She set the tea table with a familia gesture of her hand. On a sunny day like that, red mushroom-patterned tea pots and tea cups were perfect.

On top of that, a dessert plate with a cute lace pattern was placed on the edge, and the person who would fall prey to the ‘cannibal witch’ that day was placed.

“Guest, how will I decorate you today?”

First, she drew the eyes, nose and mouth with chocolate icing. She snapped her finger at the cookie and then the cookie shivered, pulling itself up from the plate.

‘Shall we make a gentleman today?’

She opened the cookie box and pulled out a chocolate cookie in the shape of a fedora. The human-shaped cookie took it and put it on his head, squinting one of his eyes.

‘Hmm, I’m missing something…’

She clapped her hands as she clutched her brim and stared at the whistling cookie.

‘Oh! A cane!’

After all, a gentleman should have a proper cane. So she pulled out a candy cane with red and white stripes from the cupboard. The human-shape cookie took it coldly and swung it like a trick.

In addition, the bow tie and the suit were nicely drawn with icing, making the perfect gentleman complete.

‘Come on, take a look.’

The gentleman cookie spun around and lowered his fedora with one hand, gracefully bowing with it.

“Good, today is perfect.”

The cookie followed her hand gestures and thoughts and moved like a puppet, but it wasn’t alive. She let the cookie dance on the plate and raised her teacup.

From carrot cake to apple pie, on that table there were cookies of all flavors and baskets filled with scones.

Anybody would think that was too much for a sole person. But her grandmother, who passed away, was like that.

“If I invite you to a meal, even if it’s just one meal, you have to dress up well to stay.”

Even if there was nobody there it was a meal to reward her hard work.

Now her appearance and name had changed but her habits were still the same. If only she had someone to drink tea with, everything would be perfect.

In fact, she was not alone there but there were no people.

“Daisy, I say the same everyday, but no.”

While enjoying homemade dried chamomile tea, a tuxedo cat drooled as she watched the dancing cookies, while it sat at the table.

Meanwhile a golden retriever sprawled out with its boat turned over under the still warm fire pit, it looked her way and clicked its tongue.

[Daisy, pig for short.]

‘Lady.’

She glanced at Lady who teased Daisy mischievous and stroked Daisy who whimpered.

“I’ll bake you cookies for cats.”

[So can I eat them too? Please! Please!]

[Wait, no, don’t make my body fat. Look at this belly here, I didn’t have it before.]

She drank tea while watching the dog give a pink cup to the cat. They were animals possessed by human souls.

Before she entered that book, the evil witch who was occupying that body changed her soul by conducting some experiments. She had read a lot of BL novels but it seems it was possible to transmigrate in a children’s book too.

That was a children’s book that she used to draw: Hansel and Gretel y Wonderland.

She was a kindergarten teacher by day and a book illustrator by night, shortly before she died she was commissioned to illustrate a children’s book.

“The artist that was drawing this book is not feeling well. Since your style is similar, can you take care of the project?”

She was asked by them to redraw illustrations from books already published; only scenes featuring witches.

The reason was…

> The witch looks so scary :'(

It was because the book review section received only one point and a flood of protests.

> Our little daughter is startled by the book!
> Our kid used to sleep well alone but suddenly slept between mom and dad :'( The second plan was so unsuccessful… Again…

How serious was it? She reached with great curiosity.

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Translator Note: