Paladin Elana stood before the entrance to the throne room. The doors were tall, made of solid metal, and covered in motifs of monsterous beings who appeared to be screaming in agony.

She would've considered it tacky if it weren't so well crafted. As it was, it somehow managed to be impressive and intimidating.

The constructs beside it silently opened the doors. This room had no need for guards, for the strongest of all was seated within. 

Swallowing her fear, she walked inside, sword raised.

The tyrant sat on a throne made of iron. Descriptions did not do justice to the aura of strength and terror he radiated.

Although he looked young—about the same age as her, if she had to guess—he had already amassed enough power to bring the world to its knees.

She had to keep moving forward. Her comrades were fighting outside, risking their lives for her attempt. In truth, while she was strong, a more experienced paladin should have taken her role. Even in a situation like this, those cowards in the upper ranks only thought about their own necks. 

It might be nothing more than a last ditch attempt, but it was the world's only hope. Fighting through the paralyzing terror, Elana raised her sword in challenge.

But before she made her last stand and fought desperately against a near certain death, there was something that was bothering her.

The tyrant's lands were well managed. The poor didn't struggle to pay the taxes, the laws were reasonable, and the government infrastructure was great and accessible to all citizens.

From observing his country, she never would have guessed it was run by a mad tyrant.

He never harmed any innocent people. Then he announced he would destroy the world.

He was looking at her with hostility now, and she felt like she was being crushed. Her duty held her in place, but her curiosity was her own will. It took all her strength to ask the question.

"Why are you doing this? From what I've seen, you aren't an evil ruler."

Overlord Zaerk's eyes lit up.

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Finally, someone who wants to listen to me!

The intimidating aura melted so quickly Elana couldn't stop herself from wondering if Overlord Zaerk just had a really bad case of RBF.

"Well, to answer that properly, I have to start from the beginning. Ever since my school principal supported my bully because he was related to their parent, I realized that the root of our society's evil comes from corruption in hierarchical power structures. But humans, by nature, are prone to corruption..."

Somewhat dumbfounded, Elana reflexively gave the Overlord her best look of deep sympathy and understanding, and nodded.

She was often called a good listener and therefore was quite practiced at sitting through long rants.

However, despite her many years of experience, she had never met a man like this guy.

He kept talking for five hours straight without pause. He talked about everything from his political philosophy to his favorite authors to his experiences growing up. 

By the end, he seemed to almost be crying tears of joy.

"You're the first person who has actually cared about what I have to say. So many people just pretend to listen, but you really understand me! Can I hug you?"

Elana stood stiffly as he hugged her. 

"I really don't want to kill you," he said, "so maybe we can just call it off for today?"

The paladin looked a bit guilty.

"Well, about that," she said, "I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I think your plan has already been thoroughly ruined."

"What?? How? It was perfect!"

"Uh.. You see, all members of this mission were given devices that can automatically transmit audio to all other members of the team... So I'm not the only one who just heard your speech..."

"And? It's not like I said anything bad."

"You gave us the passwords to all the devices you control."

"Why would I do that??"

"You were telling me about how you loved this one poem so much it became your life philosophy and you thought the title would make an awesome password. Then you started elaborating on how you used other poem titles by the same author for various-"

"Alright, enough! I see how it is! You never were actually interested, were you? You were just using me!"

The intimidating aura returned in full force, but it somehow didn't have the same effect now that Elana knew Zaerk used to poop on other children in hopes that it would make him able to communicate with birds. 

"If it's any consolation, I really did think what you were saying was pretty interesting."

"I guess it can't be helped, then," Zaerk smiled ruefully. 

The tyrant felt his power draining through his connection to the core of his network of doomsday devices. It was partially controlled by his soul, but the paladin's comerades had broken in and were now reversing the connection. He had no choice but to expel all his energy that was entwined with it or he would end up no better than an ordinary human. 

It was most of his power. He could no longer defeat the paladin with what little he had left. 

"I guess you're going to kill me now, right? Well, I suppose it could be worse. Of all people, I don't mind dying to a good person like you. Maybe I really did go too far with all the threats to destroy everything. Of course, I still don't think my philosophy was wrong. 'Might makes right' is unfortunately a highly accepted paradigm-"

"Zaerk?"

"What is it?"

"Just go. Don't try to destroy the world again, okay?"

Without agreeing, Zaerk bolted out through a secret passageway in the back of the room and disappeared.