Review Detail of th_ in Enlightened Empire

This is my second review of this novel after I've finished reading through the third book. === TL;DR: Who is this novel for? === It is for those who like balanced kingdom building without litRPG elements. You are likely to enjoy this novel if you like kingdom building elements in the following novels: "The red lands", "Release that witch", "Rise of the lord", "I am the monarch", "The Union", to some extent "Common sense of a duke's daughter". Comparing to some of those and others, this novel packs more plot into chapters, has less focus on fine-grained technology details, less attention to economics, more to power gain, complex but not over-complicated politics, no harems or reverse harems, no cultivation as a foundation of the plot, no stereotypical rebirth and revenge story. This novel is not completely focused on army building or tactics in battle after battle. == World == Realistic fantasy in medieval period. There are different human nations, no any beast types, mythological monsters or something like this was mentioned and I don't expect them to appear out of the blue. Different nations and continents have different religions, this affects countries interactions and drives subplots sometimes. Different countries have different cultural traits, e.g. nobility behaves differently towards merchants. There is no magic, some people are more powerful as they are cultivating. Technology level as you would expect from middle ages, though some inventions from real world don't exist. There are primitive guns, however wars are still more powered by archers and swordsmen. Highlights: * no gaming elements (levels, skills, etc), no system * no focus on cultivation, it just exists * style is not completely dark, but not too lightweight or slapstick comedy, though there are occasional jokes here and there. It is well balanced. == Plot == Prince Corco was exiled to another continent by his father, he has experienced some hardships and gets some knowledge from the other world at some time. It is not transmigration like in usual isekai, more like getting memories but not personality and no knowledge of future events. This stuff doesn't make him super powerful, doesn't give him some cheat skills and so on. It is not precise knowledge of how to build nuclear fusion reactor having technology of assembling wheel with wooden sticks, he has more or less general knowledge of the modern world. Prince uses the knowledge to his advantage and generates some profit in order to return home (book 1). Political crisis happens in prince's motherland and party struggles to get stable foothold in theirs own country, which ends with more hardships and difficult decisions are made (book 2). After reclaiming right for the throne, but not throne itself, main character starts governing territory and gathers power. He introduces a couple of inventions, establishes new policies, interacts with local nobility and boosts up production and trade of local products. Meanwhile conflict builds up gradually and full scale war is on horizon (unreleased yet book 4). There were couple of relatively small scale battles in first books, they are detailed enough to be not shy of violence, but without extreme gore. I like books 1 and 3 more, even though book 2 has some of the most emotional to me moments in the novel so far. Highlights: * this is story about bunch of friends moving to their goal of building a kingdom * complex political plot supported by backstories and balance of political powers * sometimes story leaps into future, moves a bit fast, but in general pace is adequate == Characters == In general, main characters are well developed, have backstories and believable social interactions with other characters. Sometimes I feel that a person behaves out of character but not that often. In first book all characters were male, later some female characters appear, not weak and not strong, they are not focus of the story. Characters don't progress through story as super-charged dominating machines, they have hard obstacles on their ways, need to deal with setbacks, difficult or wrong decisions. I felt that some characters were initially introduced as a bit comical and somewhat shallow personages (e.g. alchemist), then they gained more depth and weight in story. Highlights: * characters are reasonable, theirs behaviour and decisions are understandable from theirs backstories. * they are not out of a binary world, but are written with shades of grey. Enemies are (mostly) not just enemies for the sake of being evil, they have reasons, believes and goals. * no harem and no misogyny, no romantic relationships so far