if i were the duke i wouldn’t trust a witch known to be mean, with siblings i love like?...

For reals. Like he has a reason to be a jerk. People make mistakes. Even a duke make mistakes. And now he's fixing it and even listening to the witch. I don't see the issue here. He worked hard for his siblings. And yes she's not a pushover. Girl just trying to find her place in life. Imagine living alone and trying to scrap all the love and attention you can get. That's what you'll become.

imo, the duke and the people's actions do makes sense but it's stupid writing to only include or be specific that mc is the only witch around cause that is so obvious that author tryna make her look so pure and innocent that she doesn't deserve the bad rumors cause since author already taken Hansel & Gretel inspired story then they should commit to it like at least give enough background coverage about witches, the kid and especially their world cause I see many readers probably didn't know enough about H&G, witches and alike. It's so funny when authors mix complicated story into one like are you making a Frankenstein story? stitching different plots and themes together from another lol you gotta be skilled enough to actually make sense.

Not bad tho, it's like reading 7+ y/o story book

I also feel like they didn’t make her evil enough like now we know that she worked with the King, but like even the rumors about her was just like her turning people into frogs which that could’ve been just self-defense and then another rumor was that she eat humans when that was caused by her making the cookie move so like it could just be misunderstanding like these Little rumors I feel like aren’t enough for the hostility against her like they should’ve made it more if they wanted us there feel like she was a bad guy in the beginning. Cause at this point, it just feels like hostility against witches in general.

Another thing that adds on to what I’m saying about them, not making her actually mean enough to be considered. The bad guy in my opinion is that the town was perfectly fine like if she was so evil why did the town look you know like they’re living life lavishly if everyone was treating her bad and stuff if she’s so evil wouldn’t she? I don’t know make their life not as nice as it was plus, nobody was giving absolute scared vibes low-key it was more like rude towards her and avoided her.