Returning to Brandelis Manor, Perfikot clearly felt herself relax.
Compared to the bustling Langton City, Perfikot preferred the countryside and outskirts where Brandelis Manor was located. She was more accustomed to the single bed in her bedroom with just cotton sheets than the luxurious velvet bed at Windsor Castle.
It's not that the luxurious bed at Windsor Castle wasn't comfortable, or that the royal maids were inferior to her own maidservant puppets.
Although summer had arrived, Langton City was nowhere near as pleasant and refreshing as the suburban countryside, with air that had become increasingly polluted due to industrial development, and the dirty urban environment could never compare to the sunny Brandelis Manor.
The fundamental reason, after all, was that Perfikot disliked that atmosphere—the atmosphere of luxuriating in one's extravagant comfort built on the literal suffering of others who were nearly starving.
She could accept enjoying her privileges, could accept being an interested party, and could even accept being an exploiter and oppressor.
After all, what people loathe in wealth is the rich, not me.
When you truly are an interested party, you can't help but want to indulge in the glory and wealth brought by power, status, and money.
Only a very few great people, who possess noble character, great ideals, and lofty beliefs, would give up their own enjoyment to fight for the welfare of many, even sacrificing their lives.
Perfikot did not consider herself such a person, but she couldn't accept that her luxury was built on the blood and sweat of others, even less so that her palace walls were laid upon pristine white bones!
She might be considered hypocritical; after all, while enjoying the convenience and luxury that power brought, she said she couldn't bear the misery of the lower classes, which might indeed seem hypocritical to some.
But to Perfikot herself, that was just her conscience acting up, causing her to feel and show unwillingness.
Even though she clearly realized that to build the shelter she envisioned before disaster struck, it had to be built on sacrifice and hard work, even cruel exploitation, yet it didn't prevent her from feeling sympathy for these people.
After all, before she crossed over, she was just an ordinary worker. The education she received hadn't taught her to lord over others.
Moreover, being ruthless to reach her goals doesn't conflict with her having compassion for ordinary people.
So despite continuing to push forward with her plans, Perfikot returned to her home, where she would feel much more comfortable. She wouldn't have to think about whether her breakfast was prepared by the cook who arose before dawn or how many people were required to heat her bath water, nor concern herself with how many people it took to maintain her accustomed lifestyle.
Of course, for Perfikot, besides making herself more comfortable, she returned to Brandelis Manor for a very important reason: to complete her Flying Airship technology verification prototype.
Although she had already completed the design of the Flying Airship and placed an order with the Royal Shipyard to build the real Flying Airship, it didn't conflict with her building a small Flying Airship to verify the technology details first.
This is because the order Perfikot placed with the Royal Shipyard was only for parts. The Royal Shipyard promised to allocate a berth for her based on the condition that these parts were completed and delivered on time, for the construction of a large Flying Airship at the berth afterwards.
As for the one Perfikot was personally building, the basic structure of the hull was long completed; only the last batch of parts ordered from Oliver was missing, namely the power system of the Flying Airship.
Theoretically, this component, as the most critical power system, should have been prepared first, but alas, the miniature steam engines she needed hadn't achieved industrial-scale mass production yet. They had to be handcrafted by skillful engineers and alchemists, and then manually assembled.
Therefore, both the production volume and efficiency of the miniature steam engines couldn't be increased.
Even though Perfikot had placed the order very early and Oliver did everything possible to prioritize her order, it still took her a full five months to receive the necessary parts.
During these five months, she had completed most of the construction work on the Flying Airship technology verification prototype, having completed the hull and the airship envelope; only the power system was missing.
Once the power system is installed, this Flying Airship technology verification prototype will also have the capability to fly and will be ready for its first voyage.
This small vessel has a hull approximately twenty meters long, divided into upper and lower decks and a hold. The upper deck is not much different from an ordinary ship's deck and is used for storing goods and other materials.
It can also be used for activities and observation. It serves as the main activity space on the Flying Airship, with the cabin for living quarters at the rear of the deck.
The lower deck houses the power system, which provides propulsion when the Flying Airship is in flight.
The hold is used to store coal, food, and drinking water needed during the voyage.
Apart from this, the Flying Airship also has a large airship envelope that exceeds fifty meters in length and over thirty meters in width, providing lift to ensure that the Flying Airship can ascend.
Though the design references hot air balloons more, the Flying Airship is fundamentally different from a non-powered hot air balloon.
It can fly at a relatively high speed propelled by propellers and can control its flight direction and altitude in the air, possessing the capabilities a flying vehicle should possess.
Of course, since the hull is not large enough, the amount of coal it can carry is limited, leading to this Flying Airship's inherent shortcoming: it cannot fly too far.
But apart from this, one could say it's already a very mature design. After several flight tests and gathering flight data and technical parameters, this Flying Airship could be considered to have completed all design and construction work.
But Perfikot wasn't satisfied with this because her plan had changed now.
Since building more Flying Airships is required, she must consider how to control construction costs and optimize the design so that it can carry more people and obtain better flight data, allowing the Flying Airship to become a true large-scale flying transport.
As of now, there's a piece of good news: when constructing large Flying Airships, the power system cannot continue to use miniature steam engines, as they provide limited power, so larger steam engines must be used.
And large steam engines don't have production volume issues in the Empire, which has entered the industrial era. There's no limit to how many can be obtained.