After taking a bath and changing into clean clothes, Perfikot finally arrived at the dining room to have breakfast.
She was still at Windsor Castle and had not returned to Brandelis Manor, so she was wearing the clothes of Eldest Princess Annie.
It was a long gem-blue dress, featuring a soft texture and exquisite adornments. The expensive silk fabric made it very comfortable to wear, yet Perfikot seemed not very satisfied with it.
Don't get it wrong; the Eldest Princess gave Perfikot clothes that had never been worn before, even though Perfikot wouldn't mind wearing someone else's clothes. Her dissatisfaction lay elsewhere.
"It seems this dress fits you well, little Perfikot." Eldest Princess Annie observed Perfikot, who was wearing her clothes, and after frowning for a moment, continued, "When did I have this dress... and it doesn't look big on you at all?"
Eldest Princess Annie was considered tall even among men. Her figure was not voluptuous, yet it could be described as an hourglass figure, especially after her military training, exuding a mature female charisma with a hint of wildness.
On the other hand, Perfikot, though her body was starting to develop, was still just a teenage girl, clearly not comparable to the mature Eldest Princess Annie.
So the fact that Perfikot could wear it so well only indicated that this dress was Annie's old attire, kept in her wardrobe, unworn, until now it fit Perfikot.
Sitting at the dining table, Perfikot glanced down at her clothes and then replied to Eldest Princess Annie, "If I'm not mistaken, this should be a style that was popular twenty years ago? Even if it hasn't been worn, the fact that it still looks new after twenty years means I should say the Royal Family maintains their clothes quite well?"
Both in this world and the world she crossed from, Perfikot's knowledge and insight told her that silk is a fabric very hard to manage and maintain, given that its main component is biological protein, not animal hair or plant fiber.
In an era when chemical fibers hadn't been invented, silk fabric was undoubtedly a top luxury, especially for the Victor Empire; it could only be imported from the mysterious East.
Even among Langton's upper society, those noble ladies rarely splurged on silk garments, as it was exceedingly expensive.
For them, a silk handkerchief or scarf was an impressive accessory, while a real silk shawl or wrap was already a top luxury, not easily worn.
The cost of such items usually equaled a middle-class Langton family's annual income.
Under normal circumstances, this amount ranged from two hundred to four hundred gold pounds, enough for a five-member family to live comfortably in Langton.
Even for nobles, this was a hefty expense, and some impoverished nobility couldn't easily produce this sum.
Yet now, Perfikot was adorned in a full silk gown, extravagantly made and crafted with precision.
She didn't know the exact value of the dress, but by imagining that in one of Langton's less upscale neighborhoods, a two-story house with a garden only cost a thousand gold pounds, she could estimate the worth of her outfit.
And yet, it was just an old piece that had never been worn in two decades from the wardrobe of the Empire's Eldest Princess.
Such a comparison inevitably left her in a less than delightful mood, with a hint of sarcasm in her speech.
"Of course, you should check out my mother's wardrobe. There are some pieces handed down from her grandmother, and those clothes are at least a hundred years old!" Eldest Princess Annie evidently didn't catch the sarcasm in Perfikot's words, shrugging as she said this was very common in the Royal Family.
It's not that the Royal Family is stingy, keeping a piece of clothing for over a hundred years.
In fact, the money spent yearly on maintaining these clothes was more than making ten new pieces.
This practice is merely due to the customs of the Royal Family, or rather, the Victor Empire, believing that clothes passed down from elders are a blessing, sharing the elder's good fortune, and so on.
Perfikot remained neutral on such customs, as indeed, there was nothing inherently wrong with it.
In the past, when resources were scarce and productivity was low, wearing elders' clothes was quite normal.
In that era, even nobles might only own a few decent clothes, and the less fortunate might really have to share one garment for generations to maintain appearances.
Calling it a passing down of blessings was just a more pleasant way of putting it.
Of course, after the industrial revolution, with a leap in productivity, it certainly became a genuine traditional custom, at least for nobles.
After all, when a princess can have a twenty-year-old dress kept as new, it speaks volumes.
Perfikot then followed up on this topic, asking Eldest Princess Annie, "Aunt Annie, how much do you spend on clothes each year?"
"This? I haven't calculated it precisely, but the Royal Family has an annual budget for clothing expenses, for maintaining and acquiring new garments." Eldest Princess Annie consumed some breakfast, took a sip of milk, and then continued, "About two thousand gold pounds is spent annually on maintaining old garments, and I have an additional budget of approximately one thousand gold pounds each year for purchasing new clothes and jewelry."
At this point, Eldest Princess Annie displayed a helpless expression, "You understand, little Perfikot, even though I have no interest in these new clothes and accessories, they inevitably appear in my wardrobe every year, as that's the Royal Family's image."
If it were before she joined the military, Eldest Princess Annie might have had some interest in these clothes and jewelry, but as a soldier, she now wore military uniforms more often, and her adornments were her medals.
Even her hair was cut in a short male style, proving she was truly uninterested in these things.
But the Royal Family's purchases didn't account for this. Suppose it got out that the mighty Empire's Eldest Princess couldn't afford a new dress each year; that would tarnish the Empire's image.
Just like across the sea from Victory, in France, their queen had to change into a new dress every week.