"I'm shorter now."
That was my first comment after seeing myself in the mirror.
Standing in front of me was my reflection on the tall mirror. Silvery white hair with spiky bits here and there, complemented with deep blue eyes. Thankfully unlike the maid uniform, my clothes were pretty easy and straightforward—a white shirt and black pants. The material though, felt different than what I used to. As expected for the son of Duke, everything I consumed or used was high-quality.
Though, I am shorter now. Well, my previous height was quite above average, so seeing it reduced felt kinda sad. Still, in exchange with my current look, that was actually fair trade.
I looked like a model, alright—far cry compared to my average look, at least according to my own judgement.
"Young Master." The door to my room opened, showing Carla standing on the doorway. "Are you done preparing? Is your body okay?"
"Yup." I turned around facing her, stretching my arms and neck. "I'm fine. Or rather, my body is really stiff because I slept for so long."
Carla walked through the hallway with me trailing closely from behind. Now that I saw the area outside my bedroom, it was truly a luxurious mansion thorough and thorough— antique vases, velvet curtain, portrait of painting, you name it.
But then something dawned on my mind.
"Carla…"
"Yes, Young Master?"
"The light…" I glanced at the lamp-lookalike object that radiated the light. ".....How does it work?"
Yeah, for some reason this lam-lookalike shone light on an actual electric-powered lamp that I knew back from Earth. But there was no power outlet, nor any sign of electricity based appliances. Then again, I was stuck in my bedroom so I wasn't really sure about that.
"To think your memory loss runs that deep, Young Master…." Carla's face tightened with worry as she heard my question. Her eyes darted away for a second, like she'd just stumbled into rough terrain.
"It's powered by Psion, Young Master."
"Psion? What's that?"
Carla stopped in her tracks. She shut her eyes tight and pressed a finger to her forehead, really trying to sort through her thoughts. Then, her shoulders drooped, feeling the heaviness of the moment.
"I…I don't know how to explain that. Apologize, Young Master."
Her voice cracked with defeat. She stared at the ground, cheeks flushing pink in embarrassment. Now I feel bad.
"Y-You don't have to feel bad, Carla." Awkwardly, I tried to console her. "Just explain as best as you can."
Carla pondered for a few moments before speaking. "Psion is coming from Psalm Crystal. Many things such as lights and a stove are powered by it."
Wow, so it was a completely different energy source from what we had on Earth? But hearing it originated from crystal, it felt like it was just coal with a different name and different form. I kinda expected something more, something magical. I mean, I was reincarnated to another world—like those isekai novels. And from the little info I had about the genre, it always had some kind of magical element on it. It has to be.
"Is there any other use of that Psalm Crystal and Psion, Carla?" I inquired as we continued walking.
"Another use? Hmmm…" Carla racked her mind for an answer. " Oh! I heard some people have innate ability to generate Psion."
"Generate Psion? Are they a living power source or something?" I shuddered very subtly.
If yes, then that would be super horrible. Imagine treating fellow humans like a living battery. Reminded me of one of the 4X games taking place in the Intergalactic community. You could roleplay as a mad scientist galactic nation that used people's brain as an 'organic component' for your planet-sized supercomputer. Scary stuff.
"Hmm..? Not as far as I know. Rather, they possess some kind of unique power from that Psion. It's called 'Arts', I recall."
Now that's what I was talking about! I was kinda intrigued about this, not gonna lie.
"'Arts', ? What kind of power?"
"There are many varieties of Arts. But for the simplest example, your mother, Lady Celeste, possesses Arts called 'Icemourne', Arts that allow her to create and manipulate ice. That's a hereditary Arts of the Edelweiss family, so the headmaid explained. In fact, I remember that you inherited the same Arts, Young Master."
So I had an ice super power? Now that was cool, no pun intended.
"Many noble families are well-versed in Arts–so much that it's their entire thing. Arts noble, they were called. Though the Edelweiss family possessed hereditary Arts in their bloodline, they never were Arts noble." Carla explained further.
"We never? I thought the ice sounded powerful. Were the other Arts way more powerful?"
Carla shook her head, "That wasn't the case, Young Master. The Edelweiss Arts bloodline and its 'Icemourne' are actually quite famous in the circle of Arts nobles. It's just that the Edelweiss never really focused on the Arts in general."
I guess there were many types of nobles—classified from what they were good at.
Merchant noble, pretty self-explanatory, thrived from commerce. Military noble, thrived from fighting for the country. In this case then, Arts noble should thrive from their Arts.
So what the Edelweiss thrived from?
"The Edelweiss is always more focused on commerce and court politics, so they had no time to cultivate their talent in Arts. Though it seems that isn't even necessary, seeing that even without serious training in Arts, Lady Celeste is as strong as the family head of those Arts noble houses."
So that was the case, huh. But knowing the Edelweiss possessed powerful Arts talent yet completely ignoring it might cause some jealousy from some nobles. Imagine someone being good at what you were painstakingly trained for without effort. I, too, would be fuming.
"Is learning how to use the Arts part of my rehabilitation, Carla?" I asked just to be sure.
"Of course, Young Master. Lady Celeste even pressed hard on that matter."
Yeah! So I got to learn to become a living freezer. Meaning no more sweating in summer or lukewarm beer ever again!
Can't wait!