Chapter 394 - 186: "Going Home

"Where’d he go?"

"What’s going on??"

Seeing Carlos suddenly vanish, Yisha and the others were stunned. The young girl turned to Eleanor, her face a mask of bewilderment.

"Eleanor...?"

’Did that guy really get away?’

Eleanor immediately closed her eyes, extending her Mental Power to cover all of Kovloki Castle. Carlos was only Tier Six; no matter how he tried to escape, he couldn’t possibly evade her senses.

But the truth was, after searching carefully for a long while, Eleanor’s brow gradually furrowed.

After a good while, she had no choice but to open her eyes, her expression grave, and shake her head at Sean.

"He’s gone..."

Carlos had vanished.

Vanished in the truest sense of the word.

It was as if he had evaporated into thin air in the blink of an eye, leaving no trace behind. Even when she, a Grand Mage, scoured every inch of Kovloki Castle with her Mental Power, she couldn’t find the slightest hint of Carlos’s presence.

"How is that possible?"

Yisha was in disbelief. "Could it be he has some life-saving Secret Technique?"

Everyone had recently seen how Eleanor and Elise behaved toward Sean—they were obedient and sensible. It was impossible that they would betray Sean by intentionally letting him go. Besides, the two sisters were Grand Mages. If they truly wanted to turn on them, there would be no need for an act. They could just do whatever they wanted, since no one could stop them anyway.

Yisha didn’t suspect Eleanor; she never easily doubted her friends. That left only one possibility—Carlos knew a Secret Technique, one that not even a Grand Mage could detect.

Sean didn’t reply, simply looking toward Bofunova.

As the head of another Witch Hunter Family, Bofunova was sure to know more about Carlos than they did.

"N-No, impossible!" Bofunova was also deeply shaken by Carlos’s move.

Escaping from right under the nose of a Grand Mage was something even she couldn’t do. How could Carlos, whose Magic Power was weaker than hers, possibly manage it?

Not even with a Secret Technique!

Bofunova was certain of it.

What was a Secret Technique?

To put it simply, it was a form of Magic more powerful than ordinary Magic. The instantaneous burst of Energy it produced could allow a Caster to, to some extent, surpass their current Tier.

The key part wasn’t "surpass," but "to some extent."

A Tier Four Wizard using a Secret Technique might temporarily break through to Tier Five. Similarly, a Tier Five using one could reach Tier Six. But a Tier Six could never break through to Tier Seven, because the gap between those two Tiers was simply too vast. No Secret Technique, no matter how powerful, could achieve such a feat.

At least, that was the case in her experience.

In terms of how Secret Techniques were created, they were essentially weakened, "youth editions" of Forbidden Spells that could be controlled by Low-tier Wizards. The gap between a Tier Six and a Grand Mage, however, was like a chasm. Only a true Forbidden Spell could possibly bridge that gap. The problem was, anyone who could use a true Forbidden Spell was already a Grand Mage and had no gap to bridge. It was a complete contradiction.

And taking a huge step back,

even if her knowledge was limited and such a Secret Technique—one that could let a Tier Six escape from a Grand Mage—truly existed, on what grounds could the Wolf Family, a minor Viscount Family in the north of the New World, possibly possess it?

If they had something like that, the Wolf Family wouldn’t be just a Viscount Family.

Elise frowned. "Then how did he disappear?"

"..." Bofunova was momentarily speechless.

Honestly, she couldn’t figure it out either.

She had always looked down on Carlos, and his clown-like performance today had proven her right.

Except for that last move.

Bofunova didn’t know how Carlos had fled, but the one thing she was sure of was that it definitely wasn’t a so-called Secret Technique.

Just think: why would the Church Court send a "talent" who could even elude a Grand Mage to go work on a farm?

Sean, however, seemed to have thought of something, his eyes slowly narrowing.

"Master, I’m sorry."

Eleanor thought he was angry and felt terrible for not acting sooner. As a Grand Mage, she had failed to capture a mere Tier Six. She lowered her head in shame and said to Sean, "Eleanor has failed in her duty. Please punish me, Master."

"This isn’t your fault," Sean said, shaking his head. "If that’s really what happened, it wouldn’t matter. Even with Elise helping you, you wouldn’t have been able to catch him."

’Really what happened?’

"What do you mean?" Yisha asked.

She felt like her teacher had discovered something.

Sean didn’t answer. It wasn’t that he was ignoring Yisha, but that she hadn’t experienced it before and wouldn’t understand even if he explained. He turned his head to Elvire, his tone profound. "Doesn’t this scene feel familiar to you?"

"Familiar?" Elvire didn’t understand. "What do you mean?"

"Someone else vanished from right under our noses before?"

’Why don’t I remember that?’

"No, it’s not that someone else vanished from under our noses."

"It’s that *we* once vanished from under someone else’s nose," Sean said.

Elvire understood at once, her eyes widening slightly. "You mean..."

"The Fallen Nether Technique??"

...

...

「New World.」

「The Gotal Snowfield, in the north of the Ascension Continent.」

Here, it was winter all year round, with snow falling constantly. Today was no exception.

On the endless, pure white snowfield, an old woman wrapped in a padded jacket trudged onward, her head hidden beneath an old, wide-brimmed Wizard Hat, braving the head-on blizzard. The snow on the ground was deep enough to pass her calves. With every step, she left a deep, hole-like footprint in the snow, and many, many such footprints trailed behind her, suggesting she had been walking for a very long time.

At the edge of the snowfield stood an ancient castle. A flag fluttered in the wind on the castle wall, on which a frost wolf crest was faintly visible.