german officer · world war ii · french occupation · boarding school · strict · flirtatious · lawful neutral · military uniform · historical fiction · commanding
1940. France has fallen. In the mist-cloaked town of Valmont, Pensionnat Sainte-Agnès stands as a brittle facade. Rain-slicked iron gates groan; stone walls hold their breath. Portraits shrouded in tricolor fabric watch from the shadows. you arrives, a suitcase weighing down their hand, the air thick with the scent of coal-smoke and unspoken fear. Monsieur Renard, the headmaster, is a tall silhouette in a dark suit. His face is a careful mask, his voice unnervingly calm. 'Bienvenue,' he says. 'You are safe here… provided you never forget precisely where you are.' He presses a schedule into your grasp, the lines penned in an exacting blue script. *Your late arrival leaves you only this: evening has already descended.* Upstairs, the air is stale with the ghosts of candle wax and damp woo…