The aftermath of the snowstorm continues, but Perfikot no longer needs to divert her attention to handle these matters.
Although she doesn’t have any particularly talented individuals under her command, once she’s made a decision, she only needs her subordinates to carry out her orders.
If they can’t manage even that, Perfikot feels there’s no need to consider "Northern Territory Exploration."
Moreover, both Colonel Richard and Captain William are competent officers. While they might struggle with administrative duties, managing a military camp is no problem at all.
Currently, the Eagle’s Beak Cliff base and the fjord camp are not much different from military camps; Perfikot trusts them to handle daily affairs.
As for loyalty, although Perfikot doesn’t believe the two are wholeheartedly devoted to her, basic obedience to orders isn’t much of an issue.
Especially after several in-depth conversations with Richard, Perfikot discovered that this man, theoretically her distant uncle, possesses a bit of ambition.
He’s in his forties now, and although he’s beco the Colonel of the Guards Division, he’s also reached the ceiling of his potential.
Attaining the rank of brigadier general or further obtaining a noble title is beyond his reach now.
Unless there’s a conflict and he, as a Guards Division Colonel, has a chance to gain sufficient battle rits, his career has essentially peaked.
After all, he’s not a direct descendant of the Brandlis Clan and can’t inherit the family’s title or influence. Even if he changed his surna to Brandelis, it only allowed him to beco the Colonel of the Seventeenth Guards Division.
Despite the Empire eliminating noble private armies and local corps during military reforms, integrating them into a new army directly under the Royal Family’s command,
as a compromise with the military, the Royal Family still tacitly allowed certain military positions to be controlled by nobles.
The Seventeenth Guards Division was forrly controlled by the Brandlis Clan, but now, aside from this distant relative, the clan has no significant figures left, thus reducing their control to an embarrassing level.
In reality, Colonel Richard’s position is the last shred of dignity the Brandlis Clan has within the Seventeenth Guards Division, given the old Baron’s dwindling influence.
If the Brandlis Clan were declared extinct, or if Perfikot married soone else, leading to the title’s inheritance by others, the once-prestigious Brandlis Clan would fundantally beco a re na with no ans to assert any influence.
Of course, if Colonel Richard could capitalize on his distant relation status to seize the Brandlis Clan’s title, then he could benefit from inheriting all that once belonged to the clan.
However, it’s only been three years since Perfikot’s parents passed away, and during this ti, Eldest Princess Annie has been watching over them from the shadows, preventing the Brandlis Clan from falling to ill-intentioned individuals.
Subsequently, with Perfikot’s teoric rise — in just a few months, leaping from an underage noble orphan to a Count of Exploration, a regional protector — circumstances have drastically changed.
For Colonel Richard, he no longer needs to consider usurping the Brandlis Clan’s title or using other unscrupulous ans for advancent.
He simply needs to pledge allegiance to Perfikot and strive to serve her, naturally giving him the opportunity for title and rank advancent.
Currently, only he, Perfikot, and his two sons bear the Brandlis surna.
So, after openly discussing with Perfikot and stating what he desires, Perfikot would naturally not hesitate to grant her relative a noble title.
As a Count, she has the authority to appoint subordinate nobles, though she must provide the corresponding fiefdom herself.
Using this as a foundation, the subordinate noble is obliged to fulfill vassal duties for her.
At present, there seems to be no conflict of interest between Colonel Richard and Perfikot, and in fact, the more secure Perfikot’s position is, the greater benefits he can gain.
Because of this, Perfikot has handed over daily managent of the Eagle’s Beak Cliff base to Colonel Richard, entrusting him with the duties.
This also saves Perfikot considerable ti and energy, allowing her to focus on her own affairs.
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"Damn it, failed again! This is already the eighth failure, why is it still not working?" Inside the laboratory, an assistant slamd the table in frustration, looking at the corroded and deford blade in front of him, expressing his dismay.
Others around him shared the sa disappointnt, their emotions equally complicated.
Experint failure isn’t such a big blow to them, given that research inherently involves failures.
What truly troubles them is that their current research and experints are viewed as simple tasks — finding materials that are both sufficiently sturdy and corrosion-resistant for steam turbine blades — assigned by Perfikot.
In the assistants’ perspective, this task seems rather simple.
As alchemists, although not as skilled as Perfikot, enhancing material properties to strengthen certain aspects is within their capability.
Yet, when they attempted to strengthen existing tal materials according to Perfikot’s design requirents to et the specifications for steam turbine blades, they realized that no matter how they tried, the materials, once crafted into blades and installed in a steam turbine for testing, quickly corroded and deford.
This puzzled them greatly, for Perfikot’s material requirents weren’t excessively high. After modification, they believed their materials perfectly t the criteria, but every experintal result proved to be a failure.
Blades crafted from their improved materials often broke shortly after installation and testing, sotis causing significant damage to the steam turbine, necessitating two days for repairs by several assistants.
The test sample machine they were working on was handcrafted by Perfikot. They lacked the profound alchemy skills to replicate it precisely.
"We increased the hardness threefold, yet why does it still break? What’s wrong?" An assistant flipped through the experint records beside him, utterly perplexed.
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