MTL - The Male Lead’s Substitute Wife - Chapter 1

Yuuta was the weakest, most average guy on Earth—barely surviving college, working a part-time job, and raised in a quiet orphanage with no real family to call his own. But everything changed the night he had a vivid dream... of marrying a stunning, powerful Dragon Queen from another world.He woke up thinking it was just a dream. Until she showed up in his room—with wings, horns, and a daughter who calls him Papa.Turns out, it wasn’t a dream. And now Yuuta’s life is anything but normal.With half her power sealed, the Dragon Queen—Erza—is stuck living in the human world, adapting to cramped apartments, dishwashing shifts, and the chaos of Earth. Yuuta, once a lonely soul, suddenly finds himself with a family, a responsibility, and feelings he never knew he was capable of.As fatherhood, monsters, magical secrets, and mysterious enemies creep into his life, Yuuta must rise—not as a hero, but as a man who has something worth protecting.

“Some connections are written long before two hearts ever meet.”Arjun never believed in fate, just another lost soul buried in the noise of textbooks and deadlines.Ayesha was a quiet storm, hiding a fragile heart behind glowing smiles and disappearing messages.They were just two strangers, separated by borders, bound by pixels on a screen.But what starts as casual texts in the dead of night slowly turns into something neither of them can explain.A bond stitched through unseen heartbeats.A love whispered through endless silences.But every heartbeat carries secrets... and some secrets are too heavy to cross the distance.When time begins slipping through Ayesha's fingers, Arjun finds himself caught between holding on or letting go.Will their hearts find each other in the silence or will destiny write their last message before they ever meet?

I put all the warning tags to give myself creative freedom, but the story isn't filled with excessive gore or swearing.This is my first time writing other than for school projects. The gender-bender tag is only for the beginning because I wanted to try writing from a female's perspective and needed an excuse for why my MC reads a little tomboyish. The gender-bender fades into the background over the first few chapters; please don't let the tag keep you from trying out my story.Synopsis:Second chances are rarely earned and even rarer given. Follow a new life in a new world where anything is possible. Our MC wakes up, stuck as a baby, needing to decide how she will live her new life. Let's see what future she can forge when hard work rewards her with status points and skill levels.Author's Note: I'm currently slowly going back and rewriting my earlier chapters, so if you're starting to read this for the first time, try not to be alarmed if the quality suddenly goes down after reading a few chapters. I started writing this story almost three years ago, and I think I've improved as a writer since then. I appreciate your understanding; enjoy.

Avery Asteria was far from having anyone's dream job. Family circumstances had him drop out of school and flying around the expanse of space looking for treasure among the discarded trash in an old ship his father had been restoring. It was far from glamorous work, but it was all he could do to earn the money he needed.He was not the only one looking for fortune among the stars, though. One day a score that looked too good to be true led to a run in with a band of pirates. With some quick wits and a bit of luck, Avery managed to escape the worst, but he ended up missing out on collecting the valuable salvage he had his sights on.Having lost a large chunk of his gear in his flight from the pirates, Avery seemed to be truly at the end of his rope. However, a twist of fate led him to discovering an experimental vessel that had been lost to the far reaches of space.With this new ship in his possession, his prospects were looking up. It had everything and more than what any spacefarer could want. And Avery was going to use it to become the leader of the greatest band of mercenaries in the galaxy.