This was a genuinely surprising read for me, and it had me hooked at almost every turn. If someone described the current chapters plot to you when you began you'd have no idea how it got to that point, but the way the story flows and expands it's scope is really well done. There's more than a bit of hand of the author in some of the expanded scope I will admit, but nothing that feels super out of place. You go from this story of abandoned children barely scraping by under the protection of a Griffon, to a much larger story as power is gained,ideas and technology from the modern world is brought forth, and alliances are created.

The biggest problem with reviewing Isekai Kenkokuki is that reviewing without spoiling things is damn near impossible. The story soon swaps it's focus from small town management to a wider scope of regional conflicts and management that only grows as the story becomes greater in scope. While there is combat scenes they're few and far between and many chapters are just discussing the minutiae of rule and the new plans to improve the region in a way that feels both well thought out and interesting, which is sadly too rare for this subgenre.

The way they weave a genuinely interesting form of magic, statesmanship, and conflict is a genuine breath of fresh air in a subgenre too often about slow life empire management. It reminds me a bit of "As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World", with it's consistent theme of strong individuals gathered together bouncing ideas off one another to improve life and living in between genuinely impressive military campaigns.

There is however many things readers will raise an eyebrow at. When the story wants to have an bad guy antagonist they make them a rapist, consistently. It's not enough to hate this person because they're a crappy human being or because they're against us or they're a despot, no they have to cross that moral event horizon every time. And it's just....why do this? Why give us a genuinely horrific few pages of the story of a villager who's wife is taken by the lord, gangraped and then returned only to commit suicide to make us hate this guy, we already hated him it was just unnecessary and left a really bad taste in the mouth after reading.

That and the two wives thing that you can tell from the first couple volumes is coming. I desperately hope they don't expand this harem, I get both of the women have were given real and genuine reasons for this choice that was in line with both the plot and the worldbuilding but it's still one of those things you just roll your eyes at. The author is handling it very well within the story I will admit, and there's no one that's giving off flags of being the third wife so far which I'm thankful for, but still you can't help but just go "ffs mate" at the whole deal.

Those and the slowness of some of the developments are really the only major gripes I have, and the latter is mostly down to my impatience.

This is a genuinely interesting story, with well thought out worldbuilding and characters that has a bit of authorial presence at times. It's absolutely worth a read and I cannot wait to see where it goes because the plotlines and side stories being set up are really interesting!