This is a RELENTLESSLY noblebright series, like to the point of absurdity at times, but I'm not saying that as a negative. Every chapter is filled with positivity, near-essays on how people can overcome their pasts to make a better future, and genuinely interesting characters who learn to overcome their negative aspects through the course of the series. Even the MC is not immune from that, though he's mostly used as a catalyst for other growth stories, usually through a big speech that gets through to whoever needs to learn a lesson at that point. And there is a place in manga for that kind of story,but ultimately it's sort of let down by it's thesis statement being hammered home with all the sublety of a sledghammer to the testicles. "Better working conditions, reasonable pay that increases with time and more flexible responsibilities make people happier and thus increase productivity", however since the MC and fellows barely see any actual issues that aren't either dealt with within that chapter or solved through armed conflict, the repeated hammering home of the core theme just becomes annoying. By about the second or third time you realise this is going to keep happening, and keep happening it does and it becomes less effective of a message every time, eventually becoming background noise which is not what you want a message like that to become.

The ending is also a bit rushed, you can sort of tell the author was either running out of steam or wasn't going to get renewed, it ends on what is basically a cliffhanger for the story to continue, then transitions to a wrap up portion. Both sections are very well done, don't get me wrong, and I do love the little scene at the end, but at the same time it feels like they should be volumes apart.

But if you can get through that, this is a genuinely cute little series that most people will enjoy reading. The MC bucks the trend by not using modern knowledge or being overpowered, and instead aims to gather up good people and improve the lives of the citizens to grow his domain. And he does succeed with that, albiet with about 1/1000th the amount of people you'd expect is needed to accomplish those goals, and that journey is very interesting.

The problem is "a cute little series most people will enjoy reading" is sort of all it is, there's nothing majorly memorable here and it likely won't linger on your thoughts for very long. I'd definitely suggest reading it between a couple larger series as a pallete cleanser if you're into the premise, but sadly I can't say this will be something you should go out of your way to read.