- #1
The concept of this novel is kind of neat. The MC is sort of in an upper-management position in a kingdom building novel. High enough status to influence important decisions, but still has to obey the pecking order of politics. It's a good balance. Even with the typical trope of introducing concepts from our modern world to the isekai world, it's not the type where everyone around the MC will praise him to death and the MC inflates his ego. The balance and politics is well defined.However, there comes the actual explanations of logistics and decisions in a kingdom building novel, and this is where the novel falters. When you're a Japanese webnovel author with surface level knowledge of managing people and armies, that's what's going to get regurgitated from the protagonist. This isn't really a big deal when it's some normal JP isekai, but when it's a kingdom building-type of novel where a lot of text goes into explaining the decisions of our MC and how he's managing soldiers or dictating policies, it starts becoming a glaring issue.This novel loves to reference Roman Empire practices, such as army formations and whatnot, but then comes the contradictions.This is why I dropped the novel on chapter 47. It talks about managing refugees in camps. First of all, prostitution is banned not because of any moral reason of a Japanese person's sensibilities, but rather citing that stamina would decrease during the day. What's with this cope? First of all, lupanars or brothels were a common site in Roman war camps, and what about the benefits that come with getting rid of pent up desires? Such as less likelihood of assaults on woman in the camp due to the refugees being present.You might say that I am a devil's advocate for asking why prostitution was banned, but you have to understand that even to the MC, his view on prostitution is that it's a "proper occupation." Again, if the reason was because he doesn't agree with prostitution on a moral standpoint, it would have made a lot more sense.Again, you might be saying that this is a nitpick but this happens over and over again. There's vast oversimplifications and reasoning in dealing with war camp policies, such as "there was no crime since people were aware of the heavy punishment for it." Yeah, someone should try learning some sociology or something, I don't think that's how it works! Same thing with "depriving people of salt for a day so their mineral deficiency leads to less energy." Sorry, but chronic hyponatremia takes days or weeks to happen.Or just in general, dealing with citing historical literature such as the Roman Empire and yet utilizing their tactics with such surface level interpretations that it's kind of crazy. I'm not even well versed in the Roman Empire, so I can't imagine what it feels like to be reading it as someone who does.There IS a reason why a lot of isekai novels don't dive too deep into these sorts of policies and the reasons behind them. First of all, that's not the purpose or main plot point that the author wants to convey. Second of all, it's not that too interesting to listen to a historically accurate lecture about something in a world of swords and magic. Lastly, it's because the author doesn't possess the knowledge of the topic or the skill to implement it into their novel in a clever way that doesn't make it seem like an info-dump. So while I appreciate the approach that this novel takes, the deficiencies are also apparent.
