Witch or witch not?

Prince Wilder insisted that he didn't need any more men deployed to that village to hunt around for witches. He said he would handle it and would be permanently moving there to better find them on his own. 

Everyone was supposed to be happy about him going far away, right? But no. They were uneasy.

 First of all, it has been 3 years now. How come he still hadn't been able to find one single witch in that small village? The Prince Wilder they knew would even burn down the entire village just to find them. It didn't make sense that after three full years, he still did not have any information.