This was another task for Lin Yan, to sell the goods from their territory.
Many young men wanted to invite Lin Yan to dance, but Morris stopped them before they could even reach her.
"Angelina, is that your escort?" a lady teased, looking at Morris.
"That's my fiancé," Lin Yan said without hiding anything.
"Fiancé?" Everyone was surprised by Lin Yan's candor.
If they had Lin Yan's looks and dowry, they would never have found a fiancé so early.
"You love him very much, don't you!"
"That's right." Lin Yan watched Morris's uncontrollable smile when he heard this.
During the few days of the ball, Lin Yan negotiated several business deals.
Madam Santi, meanwhile, was constantly observing the ladies, and also checking if her son was interested in any of them.
Initially, everyone was very curious about Lady Lin Yan, but her beauty made them overlook everything else.
Moreover, she was accompanied by a person of great strength, so no one dared to underestimate her.
Morris had brought her, and on her way back, Lin Yan decided to walk slowly.
Madam Santi was very satisfied with her daughter's debut; before the ball even ended, the name of Viscountess Rose had spread.
Lin Yan's carriage slowly moved along the bumpy road. Although the carriage was comfortable, the jolting made it impossible to do anything else.
Along the way, whenever they passed a city, Lin Yan and her party were invited to banquets by the city lord. As a result, the beauty of Viscountess Rose became legendary.
Lin Yan also passed many churches on her journey. The Church of Light remained the iconic architecture in the cities.
However, Lin Yan, having fully sorted out her body's abilities, could see some darkness within these churches.
Lin Yan looked at the tattered girls in places where the light element couldn't reach, and the bruises on their bodies. She closed her eyes gently.
"Angie, darling, what's wrong? Are you not feeling well?" Madam Santi followed her gaze but found nothing, and asked her daughter with concern.
"Mother, I'm fine," Lin Yan shook her head.
"Did you see those churches?" Madam Santi took her daughter's hand. "Don't think about it. You suffered a lot in the Holy See before. Now that they don't want you, it's good that you have left the Holy See."
She could still remember the food her daughter was given when she went to see her. Something about maintaining the purity of the saint, she could only eat white bread and drink plain water.
Thinking that her daughter had eaten like this for over ten years, she resented the Holy See and the man her daughter called husband even more.
"Mother, it's in the past." Lin Yan squeezed her mother's hand in return.
Although the journey back was not entirely smooth, any disruptions were resolved by Morris and his men before they even occurred.
When they returned, Lin Yan bid farewell to her mother and told her that she was going to continue inspecting the territory.
Morris would accompany her. Madam Santi initially wanted her to rest for a few days, but she refused.
"Morris, take me away from the territory," Lin Yan looked in one direction, the direction they had come from.
"Okay." Even though he didn't know where she wanted to go, as long as he was with her, she could go anywhere.
A new round of female attendant selections began, and many good-looking girls were sent to the churches by their parents.
Few of these girls were kept, and even fewer were selected and sent to the Holy See.
In the end, only a handful of people from the entire empire could appear in the Holy See.
Yet, such selections happened every year. These beautiful children rarely returned home after leaving, and few ended up in the Holy See.
Where those girls finally went was worth pondering.
Lin Yan didn't know about this before. After all, she was from the upper echelon of the Holy See and from a prominent noble family. No one would show her the dark side.
These girls were chosen from each city in the name of serving God. Of course, some did serve deities in the churches.
But more of them became the existence of the church's dark side.
Lin Yan didn't know before, but now that she had detected it, she needed to do something for those pitiful girls.
Lin Yan's first stop was a church not far from the Chaos Land.
This church used to be where the people of the Chaos Land, which had no church, worshipped and their faith resided.
However, after Lin Yan took control of the Chaos Land, fewer and fewer people came here. Although the population dwindled, the church remained as grand and magnificent!
Lin Yan's arrival did not alert anyone in the church. She simply walked into it slowly.