Algernon Black || The Rise of a God ||

(Chapter 63) The Operation of Morals

"Yes?" Devane asked of his guest who he did not invite nor particularly want to deal with at the moment.

Javaus looked down at his feet.

"The orphanages," he weakly spoke. "They aren't right."

Devane continued with his drafting, not bothering to look up. "In what way?"

"Forcing those children to learn magic, keeping them prisoner all their lives, raising them to become soldiers for the King's army." The young advisor couldn't stop thinking about the orphanage and it made his strong morals turn to bile in his throat. "It's slavery."

"And what are we all but children forced to grow up enslaved by the ways of the world or killed by it?" Devane offered back. "In a way, we are giving them the tools to defend themselves."

"No were giving them lives of servitude, so they can fight wars they didn't start, and die for men they don't know," Javaus nearly shouted back.

Devane eyed the young man warning him to mind himself around his superior. Javaus shrank into himself, but his muscles still cinched from the injustice.

"8,214."

"What?" Javaus asked.

"The number of children that have died whether in the orphanages or in service to the king afterward," Devane explained. "8,214." Many documents were laid out before him, but none with that fact. That he had memorized and re-memorized every time it grew.

"We are currently housing and raising 17,024 amongst four facilities." Devane dipped his quill and amended the document he worked on as he spoke. "When the program was first implemented 20 years ago, only 233 orphans were housed in one orphanage. In five years, the program was so successful we built three more. An additional orphanage within the capital, one in the North-Western city of Novaria and one in the Eastern town of Eddelson," Devane recited effortlessly. "In total there have been 50,162 children that have come through these houses. 41,948 are still alive and working in the army, some even as officers."

"Why are you telling me these numbers?" Javaus asked.

"Because to justify evil you have to look at the facts." Devane finally turned to the man and gave him the lesson he needed if he ever truly wanted to better their world. "The survival rate of the children is over 80% and increasing as the orphanages become better managed. The current rate of street orphans surviving to adulthood under the age of 13 is 30%. The survival rate of 7 and under falls to 14%, and any age less than 5 falls to less than one percent."

Javaus blinked as he tried to process all the facts thrown at him.

"In a perfect world, they wouldn't be raised as slaves to fight in wars but would be allowed to live as children in a happy home. But that isn't the hand fate dealt to them. And this world doesn't care for orphans, which means there is no funding for them." The advisor's eyebrows knit together as the only sign he was just as severely aggravated with the fact. "But there is an endless budget for war."

Javaus stared at his feet, the fight in him diminishing.

"Trying to operate by the guidelines of right or wrong is pointless," Devane said, taking the young man's dejection as a sign of comprehension. "As pointless as letting something like morals and feelings determine what is good and what is not. The world will not care about such things, and you will never do something of actual substance with a sense of justice getting in the way of an unjust world."

Javaus tried to swallow. "Still, there is a way to do things ethically, you don't have to compromise your morals in everything you do."

"Someone does," Devane said, "Someone has to make the hard decisions, to take on the evil for themselves. Pork is delicious, but someone has to be the butcher the innocent pig."

"I understand," Javaus muttered, slightly bowing his head. "Even if I can't accept it myself."

"When you're young you have the energy to fight the harsh reality of this world," Devane said. "When you're old you'll do anything for the fighting to stop."

"Does it ever stop?" Javaus asked, looking into the man's eyes. They were heavy and drooped from hours of ceaseless work.

Usually, Devane never let his tiredness show, but the advisor had reached the limits of his strength years ago, and since then had been overdrawing from reserves he didn't have. "It might," he half-heartedly supposed. "But only if we are willing to do everything we must to end all of this meaningless fighting. It is what we work towards with every decision we make. And in the end, all that matters is if we reach that or not. Don't you agree?"

Javaus nodded.

"Good," Devane said. "Because I need you to do something for me."

"What is it?"

"Taking over the orphanages operations. You'll be in charge of overseeing the heads of the orphanages and making sure the management of the orphans is going as well as can be expected in their circumstances." He handed the boy the title papers he had just finished drafting to declare him as such.

"How am I supposed to do that?" Javaus asked taking the forms.

"You can start by increasing the food rations," Devane said. "There is no budget for it in the current treasury but with how wealthy and well connected your family is, you actually might be able to do something about your morals, not just speak them to others as you try to feel above them."

"That's not what I was doing!" Javaus panicked. "I wasn't implying that I was better than you."

"But you are," Devane plainly refuted. "Because you are still young, and your evils haven't all accumulated to weigh you down." The elder advisor took out the list of guards stationed at the orphanage and flagged one file in particular. "See if you can still stand so tall once they do."

"But why me?" Javaus asked, already feeling defeated in both his battles of ideals and duty. "There are more vetted advisors who could oversee such a mass."

"It has to be you, because of anyone in possession of the knowledge of the orphanages and in a position to do anything about it, only you have ever raised an opposition to it," Devane replied, silently judging the man favorably, though it showed just the opposite on his harshen features. "Lead with those same morals going forward and try not to let them get you killed."