Chapter 137: That Time I Opened a Casino in South America.

TL: Skye

A week had passed since Yu-jin brought Panther home.

At first, he'd been small enough to sit in the palm of a hand, but after eating his fill of milk and chicken breast, he began changing before everyone's eyes.

For one thing, his coat developed a healthy sheen. The singed black fur fell out, and the new fur growing in gleamed like polished obsidian. His golden eyes grew clearer too, and there was strength in his stride now.

And more than anything.

“Mrrow!”

He'd gotten huge.

In just one week, he'd nearly doubled in size.

And it wasn't as if he'd merely gotten fat.

Everything was growing, from his limbs and torso to his skull.

'Is this really okay?'

No matter how malnourished he'd been, wasn't doubling in size in a single week a little strange?

When Yu-jin said as much, Isabella answered as though it were nothing unusual.

“Seems normal to me.”

“Really?”

“Yes. He's a large species to begin with.”

Was he like a Maine Coon or something?

'Well, if he gets bigger, he'll just be cuter. No problem there.'

The bigger, the cuter.

Honestly, the real problem wasn't his size. It was his behavior.

Having decided that the entire Presidential Residence was his territory, Panther woke before anyone else at dawn to patrol the place, then raced into the office every morning and planted himself on top of the desk.

That much was adorable.

The problem was how much trouble he caused.

Leaving paw prints all over important reports was practically routine. Once, he shredded a financial report Ricardo had stayed up all night preparing, and another time, he grabbed Sophia's bag in his mouth and took off with it.

'Stop right there!'

Sophia chased after him, but there was no keeping up with Panther.

He had to be doing at least thirty kilometers an hour.

In the end, the bag was found thirty minutes later in the shrubbery of the Residence garden, covered in unmistakable tooth marks.

As if that weren't enough.

When Pedro came by to deliver a report and briefly took off his military cap to set it on the table, Panther shot out from beneath a chair like a bolt of lightning and snatched it away.

Pedro reached out on reflex, but he was already too late.

Panther ducked under the table with the cap in his jaws and hissed.

“HSSS!”

The commander-in-chief of the San Marcos Armed Forces had just been robbed of his hat by a cat.

“Ha ha, Panther must really like you, Field Marshal.”

“......”

But what could anyone do?

“Mraow!”

He was just too damn cute.

Then one day, Yu-jin learned something completely unexpected.

“Y-Your Excellency. This is a jaguar.”

The veterinarian called in to give Panther a health check had revealed the secret of his birth.

Good lord!

He wasn't a cat. He was a jaguar!

Only then did Yu-jin finally understand what Telsy had meant.

[I think it would make a fine symbol of friendship between our two countries. It won't be easy to raise, but this animal is regarded as sacred around here, so it certainly carries enough symbolic significance.]

Of course.

Come to think of it, there was no way anyone would revere an ordinary house cat as sacred.

And now that Yu-jin thought about it, Isabella must have realized it too.

'So that's why she gave him that name.'

She hadn't named him Panther just because it felt right. He really was a black panther.

But.

'This is embarrassing...'

There was no way he could admit now that he hadn't known.

He was the president, for crying out loud. He had his status and dignity to uphold. How could he possibly admit that he'd adopted a jaguar thinking it was a cat?

“Ahem... O-Of course. I knew that.”

“As expected... Your Excellency.”

The veterinarian nodded with a meaningful look on his face.

“How is his health?”

“His nutrition is excellent, and his growth rate appears normal as well. At this pace, he could reach eighty kilograms within six months.”

“I-I see.”

Carlos finished the examination and left.

The moment the door shut, a sigh escaped Yu-jin.

Panther, who had been held in place until just moments ago, scampered over, climbed onto Yu-jin's lap, and flopped onto his back with his belly exposed.

'...Should I send him to a zoo?'

Could he really keep the Amazon's ultimate apex predator, a beast that could eat crocodiles once fully grown, here at the Residence...

“Mrrow! Mrrow!”

...Maybe he could.

Rich people in the Middle East kept lions, after all.

“Mraaow!”

“Who's a good boy?”

“Mraaow!”

Whatever. Cute was king.

***

Time passed, and by the time Panther had grown to the size of a medium-sized dog, welcome news arrived.

Choi City was complete.

On a stretch of coastline that had been empty wilderness six years earlier now stood twelve hotels, five resorts, an eighteen-hole championship golf course, a yacht marina, a restaurant district, a shopping mall, and even a casino. A world-class resort city had been completed.

Just as they were trying to set a date for the official opening ceremony, Drump called.

“Yu-jin! I can't make it there in person, but I'll send a video message! The whole world needs to know that I built the greatest casino city on Earth!”

“Thank you, Mr. President. But Choi City is a resort city in San Marcos.”

“Details don't matter! What matters is that my casino hotel is already doing a hundred and fifty million dollars in monthly revenue!”

“Well... that is impressive.”

His way of thinking was a little strange, but Yu-jin let it slide.

The more Drump made a spectacle of himself, the more publicity Choi City would get.

With that in mind, they pulled out all the stops for the opening ceremony as well.

Foreign ambassadors, international press corps, tourism-industry VIPs, and even a delegation of Korean media correspondents were invited. The guest list alone exceeded five hundred people.

The goal was to invite as many people as possible and generate as much publicity as possible.

Thanks to that, Isabella spent two nights and three days meticulously planning everything from seating arrangements and protocol routes to emergency contingencies.

And then came D-Day.

Choi City Central Plaza.

The ceremony began just as the Caribbean sunset started painting the sky orange.

They had timed it precisely so the guests would see Choi City at its most spectacular.

Behind the stage, the emerald sea was slowly turning gold. Palm-tree silhouettes stretched long against the sky, while Choi City's hotels glowed warmly beneath the setting sun.

The plaza was packed with citizens waving the San Marcos flag and the Choi City flag. Foreign ambassadors in suits mingled with camera-toting reporters, while soft Latin music drifted in from somewhere nearby.

Yu-jin stepped onto the stage.

“First, it is my honor to welcome all our distinguished guests to this occasion marking the official opening of Choi City.”

Applause erupted.

“Six years ago, San Marcos was a country whose name was difficult to find even on a world map.”

The plaza fell silent. Only Yu-jin's voice carried across it.

“Tourism was out of the question. We didn't even have proper roads. Hotels aside, even finding clean drinking water wasn't easy. Whenever someone overseas said they planned to visit San Marcos, everyone tried to talk them out of it. Because it was dangerous. Because there was nothing to see.”

Yu-jin pointed toward the Choi City skyline.

“But today, San Marcos has created yet another miracle.”

He turned back toward the crowd.

There was new force in Yu-jin's voice.

“Today, I declare before all of you that I will not allow Choi City to remain merely the finest tourist destination in Latin America. We will mobilize the full capabilities of the nation to develop it into the greatest resort city in the world.”

Cheers exploded. Flags waved.

“With the natural beauty of the Caribbean and the warm hospitality of the people of San Marcos, we will welcome visitors from every corner of the globe.”

Yu-jin lowered the microphone and smiled.

“Welcome to Choi City.”

Ribbon-cutting.

Yu-jin swung a long sword and sliced clean through the red ribbon.

Boom! Ba-boom!

Fireworks burst from every direction.

The honor guard had originally been scheduled to fire live rounds, but the program had been hurriedly changed out of concern that the guests might be startled.

The crowd cried out in amazement. Camera flashes popped without pause.

As a Latin band began performing live onstage, the entire plaza started swaying to the rhythm of salsa.

From one side of the stage, Isabella approached with Panther on a leash.

“That was a flawless speech, Your Excellency.”

“That's only because you prepared everything so well, Chief of Staff.”

“You're too kind.”

*

The next day.

Choi City's opening made international news headlines.

CNN: [The Caribbean's New Jewel — Choi City Officially Opens]

BBC: [San Marcos's Tourism Revolution, A New Challenger to Las Vegas Emerges]

Reuters: [Latin America's Monaco — How Choi City Is Reshaping Caribbean Tourism]

And then there was Drump's social media.

[The paradise on Earth that I, Drump, planned has finally opened! Any Americans tired of the daily grind should stop by at least once. Before long, airfare will get so expensive that you won't be able to go even if you want to.]

What happened after the news broke exceeded every expectation.

A veritable flood of tourists came pouring in.

Before the opening ceremony, Choi City had been receiving around three thousand visitors a day. Within a week, that number surpassed ten thousand.

A new direct flight from Miami was launched.

Two flights a day. Even that wasn't enough, and more service was already being planned.

A direct route from New York opened as well, and Houston, Texas began operating three flights a week.

With tourists pouring in, there weren't enough hotel rooms.

Within a month of opening, the twelve hotels reached an average occupancy rate of eighty-five percent, and on weekends, occupancy hit one hundred percent.

Tourists who arrived without reservations couldn't find vacant rooms and had to head to Libertad instead.

Most importantly, the tourists were big spenders.

The American tourists who made up the main customer base were in a completely different league from Chinese cruise tourists who came ashore, looked around, and left.

True to citizens of the country with the greatest purchasing power in the world, they spent freely.

In fact.

“A standard room is only ninety bucks a night...?”

“Thirty bucks for a steak? That's dirt cheap.”

“I'd rather come here than vacation in the States.”

Even though prices were nearly three times higher than in the capital, Libertad, they were still only about half what Americans were used to paying back home.

It was close and affordable.

The accommodations were luxurious, the food options plentiful, and there was no shortage of things to do.

Add in the spectacular natural beauty of the Caribbean beaches, and there was practically no reason not to visit.

Thanks to that, hotels and resorts, including the Drump Casino & Resort, were booked solid day after day.

The golf course was fully booked as well.

Word that it was a golf course perched atop cliffs overlooking the Caribbean had sent American golf communities into a frenzy, and anyone hoping to secure a tee time had to reserve two weeks in advance.

The restaurant district had lines every evening.

Waitlists grew long outside the steakhouses, while terrace seating at the beachfront seafood restaurants was fully booked a week ahead for sunset hours.

The one disappointment was the lack of major retail brands, but that was something that would naturally resolve itself as Choi City's profile grew.

Money was pouring in through the special casino tax, corporate taxes from the hotels, and more.

And then came the first report card.

“Estimated tax revenue from the resort city over the past month is approximately fifty million dollars.”

It was an absolute jackpot.

“Oh, that's excellent news.”

It was the moment San Marcos, a tiny country in the Caribbean, began its rise as a tourism powerhouse.

*****

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