In a bustling city not far from Asakusa.
A cake shop named Cloudborne Sweet Nothings officially opened that day.
Unlike ordinary pastry shops, it had not set up beside other shops in the same trade.
Its neighbors were a clinic and several restaurants, with a martial arts school a little farther away.
By conventional wisdom, this sort of location was unsuitable for a cake shop.
After all, food so high in sugar and fat suited neither the patients in the clinic nor the martial artists at the school. At most, some people who could afford to live near the clinic might buy a little, but there clearly would not be many.
But those were merely the passing criticisms of pedestrians who knew nothing of the situation.
One look at the shop's decor was enough to feel the wealth radiating from it.
The exterior walls were made from some kind of wooden boards ordinary people could not readily identify, and even the side door's handle and awning were clad in matte copper.
The sign was also edged in copper, its lettering engraved and then filled with luminous mother-of-pearl. By day, it looked like a slightly unusual but hardly eye-catching signboard, yet when night fell, it would give off a soft glow.
The main entrance was a revolving glass door with a brass frame, something rarely seen even in major cities like Asakusa. Faint cherry blossom petals could be seen in the glass, and anyone knowledgeable could easily tell that dried petals had been pressed directly between its layers during manufacture.
The exterior decor alone practically plastered the word "wealthy" across the storefront.
Someone with that kind of money might never have intended to turn a profit when they took over a shop like this.
Then there was its name, Cloudborne Sweet