From front to back: Mabel, handmaiden of the demon lord. Thor Regus/Canaan, the protagonist. Rukia, the demon lord.
Author(s)Sengetsu Sakaki Associated Names
Sozou Renkinjutsushi wa Jiyuu wo Oukasuru
創造錬金術師は自由を謳歌する -故郷を追放されたら、魔王のお膝元で超絶効果のマジックアイテム作り放題になりました-
Thor Regus has had it tough since his first magical appraisal ceremony. The Empire he was born in deifies strength and combat utility above all else, but his god's granted gift is the explicitly non-combat [Alchemy]. To make matters worse, he was born the son of Duke Bargus Regus, who epitomizes the belief that nobility are born "talented." As such, the man considered Thor an "incompetent" and "embarrassment" and went out of his way to try and drive the boy to suicide. It doesn't matter that Thor renounced the family name, taking on his mother's maiden name Canaan, renounced all inheritance rights, and worked at the government office, for terrible pay, and was even repairing the crown princess's holy sword. Thor must die! As such, he has Thor kidnapped by knights straight out of his workshop, dragged to the family estate, berated for his "incompetence" for the umpteenth time, and then offered up as Human Sacrifice to the Demon territory, and is rendered unconscious by a punch to the stomach for good measure, and a laugh. While Thor could easily escape the prison carriage he's in, he knows he won't get far because he'd be helpless in the face of his knight "escort." To his surprise, the demi-humans and demons he meets in the demon territory clearly do not match the Empire's centuries old propaganda and actually treat him with courtesy and respect, while the "brave" knights that enjoyed mocking him are scared and flee first chance they get.
Turns out being brought to the demon territory was the best thing to happen to him, as being exposed to the [Dark] magic abundance in demon territory fully awakens his alchemy skill, and he gains access to one of the summoned heroes' relic, a [Mail Order Catalogue], allowing him to make advancements to the technology of his new country that can be measured in decades.
Associated Tropes:
- Blessed with Suck: The more magical power someone is born with, the stronger they are, to a point. If someone is born with too much magical power, they can suffer serious issues. Either the magical power stagnates, making spell-casting very dangerous, if they can use magic at all, or they are a danger to themselves and others, as they can't control the output, as demonstrated by Mabel Refrain and Princess Sophia Dolgaria in the former camp and Agnis Respalgia in the latter camp.
- Dark Is Not Evil: And the corollary Light Is Not Good. Neither light nor dark have a moral alignment. The two are merely part of the 6 natural magic elements, Light, Dark, Earth, Air, Water, and Fire.
- Deconstructor Fleet: The series deconstructs several isekai tropes.
- Hero Worship: Emulating the virtues of a legendary hero is fine and good, but building the country's entire culture around the hero's exploits has serious flaws. Notably, while strength is important, what about logistics? Who gave him and maintains his weapons and armors? Who cooked his meals? Who tended his wounds? The empire Thor came from almost completely neglected the support classes, calling them "useless" while focusing almost entirely on combat utility.
- Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: Because the [Alchemy] class is scorned, the empire's technology and infrastructure has been in decline for at least a century, and almost nobody can repair or maintain the empire's most valued [Holy] weapons. In fact, Thor was in the process of repairing the crown princess's holy sword when his father had him dragged out of his workshop, berated, and ordered to drop dead in demon territory "to make up for the shame of his existence." This would, of course, come to bite the duke in the nether regions later.
- Strength Equals Worthiness: Not only does Thor's grandfather get killed by bandits when his age catches up to him, but the entire empire is rather chaotic, as muscle-headed fools are constantly jockeying for position, always getting into heated disputes over who is more "worthy" to be giving the orders.
- Entertainingly Wrong: The story lives and breathes several logical misunderstandings.
- Thor gets his hands on a [Mail Order Catalogue] and presumes what he's reading is fact, not advertising hyperbole, because the summoned Heroes he knows of did even more grandiose things, and he presumes the heroes had their powers while they were natives of their world, not getting them before arriving, as he and the other natives don't have powers anywhere close.
- When Thor arrives at the demon king territory, the titular Demon Lord, Rukia, presumes that the empire is flexing by saying "this is the guy we could afford to throw away. Just imagine how much more competent the ones we're hiding are!" It takes the better part of a volume before they learn that what actually happened is that the empire as a whole were ignorant of his incredible talents.
- Bargas Regus presumes that the sword he sent to be repaired on behalf of the crown princess was ceremonial in nature, because she hadn't gone out on her first hunt yet. This comes back to bite him when the crown princess, told it was repaired, when it wasn't, thanks to Thor, the guy working on it, being banished, takes it into combat and it breaks, nearly getting her killed. She investigates, and finds out Bargas himself gave the order to make it look like it was fixed, when it wasn't.
- Everyone Has Standards: The Dolgaria Empire as a whole grossly undervalues non-combat skills vital to the logistics of their military, but Duke Bargus going even further and actively sabotaging a talented alchemist earns nothing but their scorn because unlike the Duke, the rest are smart enough to realise there is some value in alchemy instead of dismissing it as completely worthless.
- Fantastic Racism: The human empire remembers the war of 200 years ago, thus the population simultaneously looks upon the "demon" territory with contempt as "savages" and fear of their martial might, explaining the primary reason the empire is always looking to maintain the delicate balance of projecting strength at the border while not provoking enmity.
- Foreshadowing: When Mabel explains to Thor how the Respalgia clan greatly values strength, she mentions there are some who are kind - which foreshadows the appearance of Agnis, Mabel's friend.
- Gray-and-Grey Morality: Neither humans nor demi-humans are completely virtuous nor completely villainous, though the humans do tend to be A Darker Shade of Gray.
- Humans Are Bastards: The vast majority of the despicable behavior onscreen comes from the human empire. There's supposedly a faction in the "demon" territory that thinks Rukia is unsuited for it and wants to dethrone her, but after she leads a battle to subjugate a dangerous monster, and succeeds with flying colors, thanks to Thor's [Laser Pointer], said faction is eerily silent.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: On a national scale. The Dolgaria Empire is expanding its borders by conquest, using the spoils to hide the fact that their infrastructure is crumbling from age and neglect. The empire is also terrified of the Demon King territory, since their Hero Summoning ritual no longer works, and nobody knows why. As such, the empire's armed forces frequently perform military exercises at the border to project strength and keep the demi-humans deterred from launching an invasion, but the empire also tries to avoid offending the demon king territory to avoid giving them an excuse to invade, which is why they happily "sacrifice" tech experts at the Demon Lord's command.
- Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: Basically, if you are a noble of the Dolgaria Empire and don't have direct combat skills, you are treated as garbage by most of the population. Commoners, for whatever reason, are not held to the same standards.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: A historical example for the setting. The entire reason the Dolgaria Empire is obsessed with combat strength is because the original hero who was summoned was a typical isekai protagonist who was dedicated to Level Grinding to increase his power. After he went home, the culture of the empire began emulating this behavior to honor him.
- Psychological Projection: Since the top people of the empire are muscle-headed strength worshippers and the demon territory also values strength, the empire's top brass presumes the more militant part of the demon kingdom thinks the way they do. Unfortunately for the empire, the demon territory learned their lesson from their defeat 200 years ago and realized strength isn't everything, so they respect their logistics and support classes. Naturally, this repeatedly bites the empire's top brass in the butt when they try to flex and "impress" the demi-humans, only to wind up looking like chumps.
- Removing the Crucial Teammate: Exaggerated Trope all because of Klingon Scientists Get No Respect and lampshaded by Prime Minister Zagran during his Breaking Speech. Thor Regus is an alchemist whose job is to create and restore items. The Hero Worshiping Dolgaria Empire have no true use for them but Bargus Regus went further, alienating his son, and ordering him to die by sending him away as a sacrifice to the Demon King Territory. That was the worst mistake he could ever make as not only was Thor in the middle of fixing the Crown Princess Liana's holy sword and that went FUBAR enough to destroy the reputation of the Regus Household, but he also not long after became the Chief Alchemist of the Demon King and an One-Man Industrial Revolution with the goal to humble the Dolgaria Empire. A person who could create a golden age for the empire is gone because of the shortsightedness of one person and as stated by Zagran, if he had his way he would have Bargus executed for treason.
- Spanner in the Works: Zagran's plan to cause a rift between Demon King Rukia and one of her generals is acknowledged by Kelve to be a good one. The only reason it failed is because Respalgia swore a specific oath to Rukia, which meant Kelve could trust the General on the issue with the attempted embezzlement. And the only reason Respalgia swore that oath is because Thor helped his daughter.
- Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: Rukia initially dismisses Kelve's theory that the Dolgaria Empire did not realise how valuable Thor is because she cannot fathom how they could have possibly overlooked his talents. It's not until later that she realizes Kelve is correct but to be fair to the Dolgaria Empire, they missed how talented Thor is because Bragas was actively suppressing news of his skills because he viewed alchemy as shameful.
