The Impostor's Grand Entrance
"Woooah! They're really back?!"
"You saw that disaster alert earlier, right? They say Lee Seonjwa closed the gate!"
Yul smiled soullessly amid the cheers.
'Impostor or whatever, first I need to finish ticketing...'
She froze.
The hand turning toward the monitor stopped dead.
'...Huh?'
2:02 p.m.
Swept up in the sudden uproar, she'd missed her chance to spam-click without realizing it.
The servers would've crashed a hundred times over by now.
"......"
Yul stared silently at the clock ticking by placidly.
Constellation 'Blind Sovereign of the Sky' stops fuming and checks on its Incarnation.
Constellation 'Blind Sovereign of the Sky' cautiously asks if our Yul is okay.
Somehow, the one on thin ice had switched places.
Leaving behind the PC bang owner's jubilant declaration—"Today's fees are all free!"—Yul headed straight home.
Vrrr.
She plopped down immediately, booted up her computer, and pulled up the Hunter Board on her phone.
It was a site she rarely visited and had zero interest in.
But today, she needed to get a read on the situation.
Constellation 'Blind Sovereign of the Sky' grinds its teeth, determined to dig up every detail of what happened.
'...Can you promise not to kill that hunter?'
Constellation 'Blind Sovereign of the Sky' vows solemnly to try its best.
Okay.
Yul turned away.
She knew full well that was just an effort, not a promise—but she had no intention of stopping it.
The moment she logged into the board, the massive headline was, predictably, about "Lee Seonjwa's Return."
By the time Yul finished reading that far, her brow furrowed. Not that it was nonsense.
So, summing up the situation:
1. A gate appeared.
2. The impostor descended from the sky in a pillar of light...
3. Gate closed, and they vanished.
That was it.
Overly brief and utterly unremarkable... In other words, a flashy show for the crowd, nothing more.
Yul wasn't the only one who thought so—the Constellation was grinding its teeth too.
Constellation 'Blind Sovereign of the Sky' strongly insists on thrashing that gutsy illusion-type holy punk and its minions.
"Illusion-type, you say?"
Constellation 'Blind Sovereign of the Sky' nods, saying it's obvious.
Illusion.
In short, all fake.
'Makes sense if it's that type. Easy to mimic, too.'
But civilians aside, hunters couldn't tell?
'Guild-level should be decent.'
Korea's guild masters were at least A+ to S- rank.
Hunters that strong could roughly gauge each other's affinities.
Even without that, evaluation should've clocked it.
Those were the reasons faking another hunter was near impossible.
She had a rough idea what went down.
Yul let out a dry sigh.
"Staged it themselves, huh."
Constellation 'Blind Sovereign of the Sky' nods vigorously, agreeing it was an inside job.
Guild or Management Bureau.
Definitely a pre-planned show.
Yul glanced at the news on her monitor.
Sure enough, Naver's news and entertainment sections were abuzz with Lee Seonjwa's "return."
"Let's see. Dispatching guild was Korea's rank 3, 'Daehwanjang' Guild... Master is."
Yul let out a short whistle.
"S- hunter Gu Se-ji."
She eyed the photo of the man on screen and muttered.
"This bastard ruined my ticketing."
To clarify: Yul's anger was 70% "ticketing down the drain," 30% "that jerk pretended to be me?"
"...Once ticketing's done, I'll pay a visit for a little chat."
That illusion hunter too.
Yul added.
Constellation 'Blind Sovereign of the Sky' is thrilled and begins reinforcing the Judgment Staff.
Grins, saying let's judge them mercilessly with this.
The Judgment Staff wasn't meant for that originally, but right now, neither cared.
Meanwhile, as Yul quietly seethed with her Constellation.
A meeting was underway at the Hunter Management Bureau's central HQ in Yeouido, top floor.
Tap, tap.
The man at the head of the table drummed his fingers on the desk.
The neatly combed black-haired man was none other than the Hunter Management Director, Jeon Se-han.
"...Reactions?"
"Just as expected. Perfectly so."
The man standing before him grinned.
Daehwanjang Guild Master Yul had spotted in the news. Gu Se-ji.
"'Legend's Return,' 'Savior Emerges After Hiatus'—skip the clichés."
"......"
"The foreign gov stuff you wanted? Same deal."
Gu Se-ji smirked slyly.
"EU Hunter Alliance, US, Canada, China, Russia. Hunter Management nations that reached out."
"Anything else?"
"Plenty. Just the highlights."
He added that this alone wrapped it up.
"Rank 1's influence is no joke. While she was... off the grid..."
"Watch your words."
"...Taking a break, the others were getting bold. Now they're backing off."
That was the weight of the rank 1 title.
And the prestige of the nation holding its owner was inevitably top-tier globally.
Korea's gains on the world stage post-Yul—"Lee Seonjwa Slayer"'s debut were obvious.
Another reason she was Korea's pride.
Though admiration outweighed the calculations.
But after her disappearance, conspiracy theories exploded.
Emigrated, abandoned the country, severed Constellation contract, etc.
Especially "nationality change" or "Constellation termination"—game-changers for the status quo.
Public knowledge for average hunters, but for "no records whatsoever" Yul.
Korea lacked high-rankers.
Basically hard-carried by rank 1.
Those rumors naturally threatened the government.
"Anyway, our guild got its cut, so handle the cleanup properly."
"Don't worry. Compensation as promised."
"Yessir. Bonus if you pass on 'call us anytime' to the bigwigs."
Gu Se-ji chuckled and waved cheekily.
Government proposed to Bureau first, Bureau to guild.
That was the "Rank 1 Return" op in full.
'Cleanup falls on me, huh.'
Jeon Se-han sighed alone in the room.
Tablet flooded with articles.
Rank 1 was surely seeing them too.
How the backlash would hit...
Even braced, it scared him.