Of Suffering Fools and Fools Suffering
Julia von Wincott, friend to all, confidant to some, and beloved to a few too many, did not like Stoffel von Spitzburg.
That revelation may have surprised some people. After all, Julia was seen as someone with an open and accepting heart. She seemed somehow untouched by avarice, annoyance, and other base emotions, vices and temptations.
For the most part they were correct, but she was still a woman who cared passionately for people, and who did not suffer fools as well as everyone might think.
Stoffel was a fool who had been granted vast power he was unable, but all too willing, to wield. He wasn't a cruel or vindictive man, but the orders carried out in his name were cruel and oft times vindictive.
The misguided brotherly advice he had once provided for his sister, the maou, had not so slowly morphed into controlling orders. Her trust was violated and her heart was heavy, but she was at a loss to change what had begun. And it became the nation's loss. The Mazoku and humans were perched on the precipice of war, and the hope of peace was growing ever more remote.
There were many reasons for the war. Julia was not unaware of how many factors went into the violent tapestry they were weaving. But she was also quiet certain that Stoffel had done his part even if he had no true wicked intentions.
He was actually a sad man. He craved the attention his sister had always been given freely and through the years his attempts to steal it had become ever more reckless and demanding. But to start a war… It was too much.
She never directly opposed the man. She would give gentle guidance to those around him. She would coax and cajole, but she always gave people the freedom to make their own decisions—something Stoffel was not well versed in doing.
Perhaps she could have done something if she had been more forceful or less kind, but Julia was no fool and she had no intention of becoming the person she didn't like.