This is one of those series that goes off the rails a bit. You assume that it'll be a typical slow life series of adventuring and building things, and then nobles get involved and it becomes something I kinda don't like. The scenes of the two leads interacting are well written, as is pretty much everyone in this story. They're not just a set of tropes slapped together with a pretty face for us to swoon over, they're their own people with flaws, problems, and dreams and I do love that. The two leads especially are delightful to watch do things to the point where themoments they're on their own are honestly much weaker.

The story itself is well written too. Each ark and story beat comes from either a characters desire to accomplish a task, or from things that would realistically occur given the context and rules laid out. Even the more outlandish goal that comes about during Volumes 7 and 8 comes about from a genuine desire to accomplish a goal to help someone.

This is however, an almost relentlessly noblebright story. There's only a small hint towards discrimination against crafter jobs, and given the main people we see are all very talented at those jobs it never really comes up in relation to people we care about. There's been hints of intrigue and some darker elements that are at play but those are very brief, and so far have not come into the main plot very often.

I have mixed feelings about recommending this, because it's honestly nothing that hasn't been done before and it doesn't do it well enough for me to scream "read this" from the rooftops. It's just sort of standard in many ways with a couple interesting ideas and that's enough for many people, but I have a strong feeling that unless some level of tension is introduced to the story that many people will just drop the series.