Paper work

"That should be the last of it." Zen place the last document on the tower of papers, a grimace on his face as he thought about the new mountain of the badly filed documents he would have to go through again alone by tomorrow.

"Two years, it may be time for me to think about making my exit. Simmon is happy with me for now, but his cronies have been circling around looking for any weakness. I've managed to secure me some protection, Jack is either losing his edge or is slowly being paid off. I'm pretty sure Davis got to him." Zen reflected on the last two years, as well as all he knew, about the stable life he carves out for himself, and the now slowly but surely crumbling order that had been maintained for the past two years.

After he convinces Simmon to give him a trial period, he solidified his presence in the orphanage. As Simmon's little accounting slave, for the next few months, he met various power players of his new twisted family.

Simmon a corrupt elder on the council, was convinced that everyone inside the orphanage owed him money, in one way or another. Just that he was too lazy to run after all of them, so he instead sent the guards dogs he manage to win over. He either paid them off or by holding hostage their weakness in blackmail material. They, in turn, did a lot of shouting and punching on the weak, all the while grovelling on their knees at the strong. Which made for some slim picking for the greedy guards, even if they receive a small part of their pay from the elders. Counting the number in total the share was still split fifteen ways. So they were always looking for a little bonus, and the ones on the receiving end were of course the orphans. With Zen in the mix, he presented many accounting tricks that help the guards and Simmon, it gave them all lazy greedy old men's a bigger piece of the pie to eat. His arrival had placed, Simmon, as the more powerful elder in the council, but Zen began seeing signs that would perhaps once more change the power dynamic.

Jack was a middle-aged man who was never wanted, he uses to be in the navy until they kick him out, then he was in a pirate crew until they also kick him out. Then he tried working for a few merchants until he was ultimately kicked out. Only to end up finally at the orphanage, hired by the elder five they saw potential in him, as one of their guard dogs. So for the past eight years, he'd been one of the top dogs in the orphanage, as a privately owned guard. But he'd been stuck as second in command, never in charge, seeing all the extra coin the captain put in his pocket. Had him green in envy, but he had no good way of claiming the captain spot that is until Zen presented him with an opportunity. Ever since then, Jack was all too happy in watching his back, but sadly it seemed someone had something better to offered or had something worth threatening him with a weakness he really didn't want to be found out.

Davis was also a corrupt elder, but he wanted nothing more than to control everything. To the point of even making the current owner of the orphanage, one of his puppets. He was obsessed, with controlling the elder council of five, he hated Simmon for his laziness and greed, or was it because he got a little slave to cook his books. When Zen came onto the stage he tried repeatedly in recruiting him, it would have been fine if he was only a control freak. But there was a nastier side to him, that had Zen firmly but politely refuse him. Davis liked little boys in his bed, especially unwilling young boys who cried as he forces himself on them. Once the boy was broken and stop resisting, Davis releases him, only to find him later again, once the boy had healed. All so that he could break him over and over as many times as he could, many boys had killed themselves just to be free of Davis, and after every dead boy, Davis became, even more, obsessed with his next boy toy. Trying to control all aspects of his chosen life, holding him close, so that he wouldn't escape his twisted affection.

The other three elder all had their little corrupted itch, one was into little girls. One was into older ones, but he owned a brothel, so any abused children went straight in there, only if they were still pretty, some had never been touched under his protection, but that always changes by the time they were old enough. The last one would sell the sick and damaged children to a variety of buyers who we're looking for human guinea pigs.

As for the owner he was a minor noble, who suck away about 70% of the yearly budget, leaving 30% for the orphanage, the elders all took a cut of 5%. They also reluctantly pooled together to pay the guards each 1% of theirs own share leaving them still with 4% to use for their own dark ambition. It left only the last 5% which from time to time turn to 3% or 2%, the servant of the orphanage would pocket that extra 2% or 3% depending on holidays. What has left is usually was use on food. If there was anything left over, it was usually poured into whatever needed the most on maintaining the building in keeping it in one piece. That fluctuating of a sometimes 5% for the orphanage, was never enough, so the kids were forced by the elders and guards into a life of crime, in order to gather more funds or food. More money means more food, less money meant either water down porridge or no food at all. The guard got their pay from all the elders, who reluctantly paid them each 1% of their owned shares in order to ensure the guard's loyalty to them.

"I'm only five and I have to watch my back, in this viper-infested hell hole. It was still sad that this is the better option for me, in order to survive. At the very least, I'm getting fed better than most of the kids here. The only downside is that now that Simmons, got me to train some of the other kids. He now has six extra accountants, well it a good thing I only showed the basic. Most of them are already cocky, they think that they have an edge, all I need now is another two years, then I get the hell out of here. I hope they don't start killing each other before I'm ready." Zen gave out a sigh, as he got up to lock the office up. Just because he was the one who taught them all accounting, it still didn't mean they had any respect for him. Once all six were convinced that they knew everything he had to teach, it wasn't long before they lorded over him, by stacking all the more annoying work, on to him. Which was almost all of it, leaving him a great chance to make his own little book cooking for the future.