Fort Devens. A United States Army Reserve base.

  It was the birthplace of the legendary 10th Special Forces Group—the Green Berets—

  but now that the main force had moved on,

  it served as a training ground for the Army Reserve.

  Chazra belonged to the 10th Special Forces Group detachment that remained there.

  From the moment he first decided to become a soldier,

  he had wanted to join the very best.

  However, his family was just as precious to him as his ambition.

  Fort Devens was the only compromise that satisfied both.

  Though it was part of Special Operations Command,

  it was only a little over an hour’s drive to the MIT Energy Initiative,

  where his father and brother worked,

  and to the companies in Boston where Zaydan and Asha were employed.

  ‘To protect them as perfectly as possible, from as close as possible.’

  He wanted to overturn America’s cold gaze toward him through sheer ability.

  To grant grace to the country that had once falsely accused him—

  this, to him, was the most dignified form of revenge.

  That was why Chazra wore the uniform.

  “Yes, sir! I’ll return to duty immediately.”

  After completing his return report,

  Chazra left the commander’s office and went straight to find Captain Jerome Brice.

  Jerome was Chazra’s fellow officer from the same intake—

  and his closest friend.

  Chazra knew he needed Jerome for this.

  As an intelligence officer, Jerome was essential;

  without his help, nothing would be possible.

  “Hey, Chazra! How was the honeymoon?”

  Hearing that Chazra was looking for him,

  Jerome came running over at once to greet him.

  Jerome was known in the unit for being short and lacking athletic ability,

  but also for his incredible persistence—

  the kind of man who saw any task through to the very end.

  He got along well with others and had a solid reputation.

  Above all, he could keep his mouth shut,

  making him a friend Chazra could truly trust.

  “How’ve you been, Jerome? You look like you’ve gotten even shorter.”

  “What? You little—are you picking a fight?”

  The two briefly grabbed each other by the collar before letting go and breaking into laughter.

  After exchanging greetings, Chazra and Jerome headed toward the unit’s lounge.

  “Hey. You’ve got something you want to say, don’t you?”

  On the way, Jerome nudged Chazra in the side with his elbow.

  'That’s Jerome for you.'

  “Was it that obvious?” Chazra said, playing dumb.

  “How long have you and I been in the service together? Feels like it’s been eight years already.”

  Jerome started counting the years on his fingers.

  “Wait—was it seven? Didn’t we start in 2018? Two years as second lieutenants, two as first lieutenants.

  This is our third year as captains, so that makes seven, right?”

  Before Jerome could finish his calculation, Chazra answered first.

  “Oh, right. The major’s promotion exam is coming up soon. You’ll pass it without a hitch, though.”

  Jerome praised Chazra, giving him a boost.

  “Me? Aren’t you the one getting higher evaluations than I am?”

  It was a sincere thought, separate from the fact that he needed something from Jerome.

  “Ah, forget it. Just say what you wanted to say earlier.”

  Jerome always dodged the subject whenever he was praised.

  Perhaps because he was used to people looking down on him for his short stature,

  he seemed awkward with compliments.

  Chazra’s expression turned serious.

  He gestured to Jerome and veered off the path toward a more secluded area.

  Jerome didn't ask any further questions. It was mutual trust.

  They arrived behind a warehouse with no CCTV cameras and hardly anyone around.

  Leaning against the wall, they took out cigarettes and lit them.

  “This is where the seniors used to drag us during our second lieutenant days and chew us out.”

  Jerome said, exhaling a stream of smoke.

  “Yeah.”

  Chazra took a deep drag as well and breathed the smoke up into the sky.

  Watching the pale smoke scatter into the blue sky felt bitter,

  like the fading traces of his vanished father.

  “Jerome. I’m about to do something a little dangerous. Can you help me?”

  Chazra asked, tossing the words out casually.

  “Let’s hear it first,” Jerome said without looking, adjusting his beret.

  “I want to see some classified Department of Defense information.”

  “No. I’ve heard enough. I’m out.”

  With the cigarette still clamped between his teeth,

  Jerome turned and walked away without looking back.

  He couldn't let him go like that.

  Chazra flicked his cigarette into a drainage ditch and immediately followed him,

  lowering his body and whispering the news of his father’s disappearance into Jerome’s ear.

  “Is that so? Still, no.” Jerome was firm.

  “There’s no one else who can help me. You know you’re the only one I trust.”

  Chazra clung to Jerome, almost begging.

  “There are two things I can do. One is pretend I didn’t hear anything.

  The other is report you. I’ll give you the choice. Which one should I choose?”

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  Chazra let go of Jerome’s arm and lowered his head.

  Jerome kept walking, then turned when he realized Chazra wasn’t following.

  “Friend. What you should choose… is ‘friend.’”

  Sunlight poured down from the mountain behind the base,

  shining at Chazra’s back and breaking into scattered light.

  Jerome’s face, standing in the shade, was impossible to see.

  “Please. Jerome.”

  “…If I die, you’re responsible. And introduce me to some pretty women, too.”

  Jerome answered while fiddling with his cap, then turned and walked away.

  Having received Jerome’s consent,

  Chazra ran up from behind and wrapped his arms around him,

  lifting him off the ground.

  “Thank you! Thank you, Jerome!”

  “What the hell are you saying, you lunatic!

  You’re married! People will get the wrong idea if they see this!

  Put me down, you maniac!”

  Jerome shouted, swatting at Chazra.

  “Thank you.”

  “Get lost.”

  From then on, Chazra threw himself into obtaining internal military information with near-mad determination.

  “You crazy bastard—at this rate we’ll both end up in the brig,”

  Jerome grumbled, but he still stayed up through the night, helping Chazra dig for information.

  But there were no results.

  All they discovered was that the military had plenty of foul-smelling secrets it wanted to keep hidden.

  Jerome even pulled in contacts from other units and checked indirect access routes to Pentagon servers,

  but the name “Zahir Al-Muradi” appeared nowhere.

  It was spotless—as if he had never existed in the first place.

  Chazra did not give up.

  After work, he stayed up through the night,

  asking Artistea hundreds of different hypotheses,

  and searched for new routes through daily calls with Zaydan and Ahmadi.

  More than a year passed in vain.

  At the end of 2026, on the day his batchmate Jerome pinned on the rank of major,

  Chazra’s shoulders still bore the insignia of a captain.

  “Captain Chazra. Where is your head these days?”

  Reprimands from his superiors became routine.

  Despite holding the heavy responsibility of being a company commander in Special Operations Command,

  he often drifted off during training or missed key points in operational briefings.

  The reputation of Chazra as a “capable soldier” had hit rock bottom.

  The night he returned from a major training exercise,

  Asha was standing with her arms crossed, glaring at him the moment he opened the front door.

  “Chazra. Are you going to keep going on like this?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Chazra answered half-heartedly as he took off his combat boots.

  His whole body felt heavy, like cotton soaked with water.

  “I mean, are you even doing your job properly right now? As a soldier, and as a husband.”

  Asha’s voice sharpened.

  Chazra frowned.

  “Oh, the missed promotion this time? It’s no big deal. I’m fine.”

  He just wanted to rest his exhausted body.

  He tried to change his clothes and head for the bathroom,

  but Asha didn’t step aside.

  “What do you mean it’s fine?! Is this why you became a soldier?

  Are you going to throw your whole life into the gutter just to find your father?”

  Her words slammed into Chazra’s chest like a pitcher’s fastball.

  A rush of anger flared up inside him.

  “No. I’ll handle it myself. Don’t worry about it. Everything will be fine.”

  Chazra shot back, unwilling to give ground.

  ‘Making Asha worry… I should be doing better…’

  Contrary to his inner thoughts, the words that came out of his mouth were sharp.

  “You know you’re the one responsible for protecting us, right?”

  From behind Chazra, who was trying to fold his discarded uniform jacket,

  Asha roughly grabbed his shoulder and spun him around.

  “Huh? Us? Of course... No, wait. Us?”

  Chazra’s eyes widened.

  Asha’s gaze dropped downward.

  “Yes, you idiot. What did I tell you?

  I told you to do better, didn’t I?

  If you’re going to do it, then please do it right.

  What do you think you’re doing right now?”

  Asha spoke as she gently stroked her flat stomach.

  Her eyes were beginning to well with tears.

  “You don’t mean... is it really true?”

  His heart felt like it dropped straight into his stomach.

  “Yes. You’re a father now.”

  At her words, Chazra stumbled backward, his feet got tangled,

  and he landed hard on his backside.

  “Ugh!”

  But he didn’t feel any pain.

  After staring blankly up at Asha, he suddenly sprang to his feet and pulled her into a tight embrace.

  “I’m a father! I’m a dad!”

  Chazra hugged her so tightly that Asha let out a cry.

  “It hurts! Easy! What if the baby gets hurt?!”

  “Huh? Oh—oh, right, right. I’m sorry!”

  Startled, Chazra quickly loosened his grip and carefully let her go.

  He rolled the words he had just heard around in his mind, as if tasting them.

  “I’m... a father... Haha... hahahaha.”

  As he burst into laughter like a madman, thick teardrops soon began to fall from Chazra’s eyes.

  'I, who lost my father... I’m becoming a father?'

  A sense of loss and fulfillment surged in at the same time, making his chest feel as if it might burst.

  Asha could see straight through Chazra’s heart.

  Knowing better than anyone how desperately he had clung to the search for his father over the past year,

  her eyes, too, grew red.

  “Do better, Chazra. Please. Get yourself together and do better. For me. And for the baby.”

  Asha walked over to Chazra, who had slumped down on the bed, and lightly sat on his lap.

  To Chazra, the fact that Asha was now in his arms felt like a miracle all over again.

  Unlike his own body, still carrying the smell of sweat from training, she smelled warm and soft.

  With trembling hands, he wrapped his arms around her.

  Her hair, her eyes, her forehead, her nose, her lips—

  everything about her was so precious he could barely stand it.

  His heart swelled at the thought that someone far too good for him had stayed silently by his side for more than a year.

  All at once, it felt as if he could smell the fresh breeze from the hill in that village back when he was in high school.

  “How… how far along are you? Is it a boy or a girl? What should we name the baby?”

  Chazra asked, his voice filled with childlike excitement.

  “Hmph—so you’re not worried about me at all?”

  Asha kissed Chazra’s cheek and gave him a playful, sidelong glance.

  “I—I’m sorry. I messed up.”

  “Hahaha, it’s okay. Still, it’s been a while since you’ve felt like the ‘you’ I know.

  For a while there, I thought I was living with a ghost.”

  Chazra gave a bitter smile at her joke.

  ‘I see… after we got married, I…’

  “I’ll do well. I really promise.”

  “Just words?”

  “No. I’ll show you. I’ll make sure to get promoted at the next training and prove it’s not a lie.”

  “I really wasn’t myself. Please forgive me.”

  Chazra’s eyes had returned to the sharp, driven gaze they’d had a year ago.

  “The promotion doesn’t matter. It’s just… the past year was long. You might not even realize it, but…”

  Asha paused for a moment, then let it slip.

  “Do you know our wedding anniversary was a week ago?”

  Chazra felt as if he’d been struck hard on the back of the head with a hammer.

  “What? Already?”

  He hurriedly grabbed his phone from the nightstand beside the bed.

  His fingers trembled slightly as he turned on the screen and checked the calendar.

  His calendar was packed with military terms like [Operational Meeting], [Intelligence Briefing], and [Training Schedule].

  Nowhere could he find the words “1st Wedding Anniversary.”

  He realized, with painful clarity, just how much he had neglected his family.

  Toward Asha—who had quietly prepared his meals and waited for him without a single complaint—

  an indescribable mix of guilt and gratitude surged up.

  He set the phone down and pulled Asha into another crushing embrace.

  From the next day on, Chazra became a completely different person.

  The vacant gaze that had once drifted into empty space was gone,

  replaced by the sharp focus characteristic of a special operations officer.

  Asha had been right.

  The time he’d spent broken had gone on far too long.

  And through all of it, Asha had been waiting for his pathetic self in silence.

  His superiors were delighted to see the return of their “ace,”

  offering stern advice along with words of encouragement laced with hope for his promotion.

  Chazra accepted it all without excuse and answered that he would prove himself through action.

  The harsh winter training exercise approaching soon would be the stage for that proof.

  The day before departure, Chazra gathered his company and bowed his head.

  He honestly apologized for the ways

  he had fallen short as a company commander over the past year and asked them to trust and follow him.

  “Ah, why did this apology take so long? I thought my neck was going to snap from waiting.”

  Master Sergeant Michael Carey,

  who had shared life and death with Chazra since his days as a junior NCO,

  grinned and broke the tension.

  Chazra took in the faces of his soldiers one by one.

  They, too, were looking back at their company commander with eyes full of trust.

  In the quiet that settled over the barracks, he finally felt that the team had truly become one.

  Thank you for being here.