"The Adventures of the Candy House" has a very simple story. Hans and Gretel are the children of a poor lumberjack's family. After the lumberjack married his second wife, the stepmother, under the guise of "family poverty," convinced her husband to abandon the children in the forest, leaving them to starve to death. The two children, abandoned in the forest, initially used pebbles as markers to find their way home. But the second time, birds ate the breadcrumbs they used as markers. They got lost in the woods and stumbled into the Witch's candy house. After a battle of wits and courage, they killed the Witch and returned home, just in time to find that the stepmother had also died of illness. The family then happily reunited. In fact, the original fairy tale is quite dark and cruel, with some details deeply disturbing. However, in this altered Fairy World, "The Adventures of the Candy House" has been distorted beyond recognition.

"Your son and daughter were kidnapped by them?" Li Ang asked. "What happened?"

"While I was setting up the factory in Antimony Town, I moved my family here too. It's a villa, located on the highlands on the east side of the town." Carpenter Hoenburg clenched his teeth and fists, saying, "To prevent their intrusion, I specifically hired a group of security personnel to guard the residence. Unexpectedly, yesterday evening, while my wife was taking the children to picnic on the lawn behind the villa, these people snuck through the woods and kidnapped my two children. I organized a team overnight and pursued them, finally catching them in this camp."

Li Ang raised an eyebrow. "Just this few people? Didn't call for official support? It took a whole day to find them?"

"I called for support," the paper mill owner said somewhat helplessly. "However, this group seems to have some kind of strange special ability that allows them to hide and conceal themselves in the forest, making them undetectable even if people walk straight through the woods. The other search teams are probably still scattered in other parts of this vast, dense mountain range."

He did not finish the latter half of his statement. In fact, the leader of the Children of the Forest was an active old witch, a Natural Spellcaster of still decent strength. It appeared she came from an ancient secret organization, some of whose members were highly placed in positions of power across various regions. This was probably why the Children of the Forest had been so hard to wipe out over the years.

However, many of the Children of the Forest standing here now were youths lured away from Antimony Town itself. (The local workers had been reluctant to act decisively earlier because they didn't want to harm their own relatives.) These were not all of its members. Many more of the Children of the Forest, the witch, and Carpenter Hoenburg's kidnapped children had yet to show themselves.

Li Ang nodded and turned to the member of the Children of the Forest. "So, where are this gentleman's son and daughter now?"

"..."

The girl was silent for a moment. As proud as she had been when she stepped forward to argue, she now wished she could feign ignorance. "I'm... I'm not quite sure about that. Uh, maybe you... you could stand here and wait? We Children of the Forest are definitely not those kinds of deranged villains. I believe that both parties can negotiate through civilized and harmonious means, eliminate misunderstandings, and reach a consensus..."

Before the girl could finish her stammering explanation, a deep, hoarse voice came from deep within the forest. "Respected Mr. Hoenburg, please do not worry. Hans and Gretel are very safe."

The paper mill owner instantly widened his eyes and stared into the forest.

This voice... it was the leader of the Children of the Forest, that crazy old witch! Old Dorothy!

Out of the dense woods, a decrepit old woman slowly emerged. She was dressed in a heavy coat woven from moss and wore a wreath made of colorful flowers crowning her head. Under her right armpit was a whitish-brown wooden staff, and on her shoulders perched many birds of indistinguishable species. Among them was a Hawk Falcon that seemed to suffer from severe sleep deprivation; it was nearly tagged with a sign reading, "This is a hawk about to be exhausted to death."

Such a traditional, diversified outfit indeed carried the aura of a Forest Witch, but what drew the most attention were the two children walking hand in hand with her, one on each side.

The two children were dressed just like the Children of the Forest. In appearance, they indeed bore some resemblance to Carpenter Hoenburg.

The moment Carpenter saw the children, he cried out with immense joy, "Hans! Gretel! Wonderful!"

These two children, in appearance, indeed bore some resemblance to Carpenter Hoenburg. Dressed in the same attire as the Children of the Forest, however, their faces were expressionless and somber. They looked less like children and more like deeply wronged prisoners awaiting execution, or philosophers.

Seeing his children's faces smeared with paint and their obviously abnormal mental states, Carpenter Hoenburg roared at the witch with uncontrollable rage, "Let go of their hands, you damned witch! You've abducted my children! What have you done to them?!"

He instinctively charged forward, but the surrounding lumberjacks held him back firmly without Li Ang needing to intervene.

"I've done nothing," the old witch said calmly. "I have not cast any spells to change your children's minds, nor have I made them drink any Bewitching Soup. They joined the Children of the Forest of their own free will.

"To be precise, I didn't abduct them. Yesterday afternoon, it was your wife who neglected the children, allowing them to enter the shrubbery behind the villa on their own. Had I not passed by that place by chance, they would probably have been eaten by ferocious wildcats by now.

"When I saved these two children, they were already seriously injured, and I had no choice but to take them to our camp for treatment. Yet, before I could return the children or explain anything, you had already assembled a massive search and rescue team, calling for our heads—the Children of the Forest.

"If you ask me, this is all a big misunderstanding…"

Carpenter Hoenburg hadn't clearly heard what she was saying. He squatted down slightly, spreading his arms towards them. "For Her Majesty the Queen's sake, my children, you're alive! Thank goodness! Come to Daddy!"

However, the two children didn't seem to buy it. Not only did they not pull their hands away from the Forest Witch to rush towards their father, but they also rebuked him angrily, "Please don't call us that, you cold-blooded Forest Butcher!

"We are ashamed to use the Hoenburg surname, inherited from a lineage that manufactures paper! We have chosen new names to commemorate our new lives and to sever ties with the long eight years of our past!"

The little boy frowned deeply and spoke with grave seriousness, "You may call me Forest Fairy."

The little girl added, "And you can call me Forest Elf."

Then, the two of them said in unison, "We will fight for the forest, unto death!"

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