Inheriting a Lost Bloodline, My First Task is to have heirs?!
Chapter 76 - 76 - Uncle Daejung and Dongmin

Daejung's POV

Just like all single fathers in this world, I do have my own sob story to tell. Only me and my son ever knew this story since I don't see the point of telling everybody how miserable I was before I met the mother of my child and gave birth to my son on my own. Being pitied is not a nice feeling anyways so, why bother?

I came from a family of alchemists. As early as I can remember, my mother and father as well my grandparents on my mother's side were alchemists. I guess even the generations before that had the same job. My family is somewhere in the upper middle class bracket in our hometown. We own some land which we use to plant herbs, we then turn them into medicine and other potions and finally, sell it to other people who need it. I have one younger sister and both of us were trained to be alchemists from a young age.

With how this world works, women are always prioritized when it comes to inheriting business, property and even when it comes to getting better marriage partners in old rich or upper class families. Though our family is only an upper middle class one, this truth still applies. Thus, even if I was the first-born child and had more talent in alchemy than my younger sister, I've always known that I have to be contented with her scraps. It also did not help that she seems to despise me more and more as we grew older into our teenage years. She always says mean things to me about trying too hard but I will never be good enough to be the heir as if I wanted to steal anything she has. After my father died due to an unexplainable sickness when I was 14 and my sister's father became the main husband, everything just became worse. She then resorted to even instigating her friends, our neighbors, schoolmates and even our cousins to bully me and physically hurt me, knowing too well that I would not even try to fight back. This continued till me and then her came of age. She seemed to think that I was competing with the position of heir with her when in fact, it was something that I have refused to even give an ounce of thought or energy into.

Being realistic spares you from unnecessary heartache. When you don't expect anything from anyone, you won't feel disappointed. These are things my late father always instilled in me given this matriarchal society we are in. It did not matter if I was born first. Even if I was the only child, my mother would have married more men until she got a female child whom she thinks is the only one worthy to inherit the business.

When I came of age which was about two years before my sister had her coming of age, she was fervently convincing the elders including our mother to have me married off to god knows who or where as if I am someone she couldn't wait to kick out of the family. Knowing that I have barely two years left before I will be forced to leave the home I grew up in, I studied nonstop and learned as much as I can about alchemy and handling the business side of a full-pledge alchemy store. I even requested for my mother to let me take business courses and I lied through my teeth about wanting to assist my sister once she becomes the clan leader. She readily agreed since she has never seen me compete for anything with her favorite child.

At the same time, I applied as a normal clerk at the family's main store as well as a part-time farmer at our family's herb farm so I can see personally the ins and outs of the business as well as save as much money as I can. I stopped caring about my sister's tantrums or any misunderstandings she had in her stupid and greedy brain. My father was diligent and made sure he left me as much financial support as he can in the form of a storage ring that can only be opened by someone of his kin which is me. I still worked though since having a little more extra wouldn't hurt. I also promised myself not to open the storage ring till I have left the household. I always felt that my father knew that his time was limited and that I will eventually have to leave the household in the near future. He also, for some reason, faked my family registration. There was a father and a child registered on my mother's family register but it was not mine or my father's legal name. I was registered under a different name in my mother's family register but I have a different set of birth papers where I do not have a registered mother and I am using my father's given name and his family name as well. He used my legal name to open a bank account for me secretly and I also used the same name to get alchemy and botany certifications up to the master level. He somewhat prepared my smooth exit from this household that do not value people just because they're men.

On the eve of my sister's coming of age ceremony, I secretly left the household with all the things I and my mother owned but left everything else my mother brought for us. I do not have the need for such alms or scraps from her favorite child. I left not a single sign of me or my father ever living in the room that my mother assigned to us. This is one of the wishes my father had on his deathbed which I have no qualms of fulfilling for his sake. I then used my legal papers to cross from one territory to another. I chose the farthest and most secure in terms of identity secrecy, the Athanoviya empire as my new homeland.

It took some time before I was able to reach my new homeland so I simply enjoyed my adventures a lot while meeting new people and experiencing different cultures. As for Dongmin's mother, I don't know where she is or if she even gave me her real name since I did not give her mine. I liked her enough to give myself to her for a night but I still left secretly to continue my travels since I don't want to implicate anybody else since I did not know if my life is in danger or not. I did not know I was pregnant then. I made the choice so I just had to stay on the path I chose so I did not look for her anymore.

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Dongmin's POV

Living in a single parent household hasn't been easy. I had to mature fast, help with chores as well as help in earning money. When I came of age, the first thing I did was register as an adventurer. The pay is good and I can help my father with gathering herbs and other alchemy materials as well.

As far as I can remember, it has always been just the two of us through thick and thin. My father never mentioned anything about my mother. At first, I did not understand but as I grew older I understood that he was just sparing me from unnecessary heartache since one could not pine and look for someone whom you never met and have no memory of.

I thought my father was happy and contented with just the two of us but recently, he started mentioning the name of a woman. I thought it was just a kind customer who bought something from the shop but I was wrong. In just a few weeks, she was already my father's business partner and a major investor in the alchemy shop. The shop was the fruit of my father's hardwork all these years and many people have tried to buy it off of his hands but he vehemently declined no matter how large the monetary offer was. Then enters this "Luna" from who knows where and with just a word, my father lets her re-design the shop, signs a partnership document with her and updates how the inventory and the payment system works. He then even told him recently that he's planning on listing the shop under her corporation, whatever that word even means.

I do hope she's really kind and sincere like how my father describes her to be. The changes in the shop are amazing. She even helps in filling up the inventory once in a while and then when the items are sold, her and the shop will take what's rightfully theirs with a simple shared profit scheme of 60-40 in favor of that woman. I can't deny that her help with filling up the store's inventory does lift a bit of a burden from me and I can focus on taking higher level adventurer tasks that earn more money. I have to save money to help my father get a bigger shop and of course, I am starting to save money for my future marriage. I don't want my wife and her family to treat me as a beggar who is marrying with nothing to his name. That would also result in my father being insulted and I will never be able to accept that.

I wonder how old this Luna is? My father seems to be pushing for me to meet her as soon as possible. Is he trying to make us meet to get us acquainted? Don't tell me he's planning to... get married at this age? No way. Am I getting a stepmother now?

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