Long, long ago, there was a king. One day, while hunting in the forest, he was drawn by a beautiful song and followed it deep into the woods.
Soon, he found a stream fed by a waterfall. Beneath the waterfall, a beautiful red-haired girl was bathing.
He was so captivated that, upon spotting the stranger from afar, the girl snatched up her clothes in panic and ran home.
But the king had no intention of abandoning this "hunt." He rode around by another route and pursued the red-haired girl. Fallen leaves swirled in the wind like burning sparks, yet in the king's eyes, the girl's graceful figure and beautiful red hair were even more striking.
During that brief pursuit, feelings quietly blossomed between them. When the girl reached home, the king arrived at her door, only for an old woman to stop him as he tried to force his way inside.
"Who are you?" the old woman asked.
"I am the king of this country," he said. "I am willing to offer the gold, silver, and jewels in my treasury, even change your family's fate, if you let me marry your daughter."
"I have two daughters," the old woman said lazily. "One is my biological daughter, and the other is adopted. Which one do you wish to marry?"
The king looked the old woman over and thought she probably could not have given birth to such a beautiful daughter. "Tomorrow morning, send your adopted daughter to my castle. You will receive everything I promised."
Then the king left the little cottage in the woods.
Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier's father had once been a mole catcher at the Wang Family breeding farm in Laon. He owned a small estate and was considered a local noble, so when Sérurier was thirteen, his father bought