Devil’s Music

Doctors who saw Elisha's expression were slightly surprised, but merely one photograph was not enough evidence to stop the antidepressant treatment, so they quietly waited for Larry to speak. As Larry projected the photo and stepped next to the podium, he stood in front of it.

"This photo was taken two days ago. Are there any psychiatrists here? Could you raise your hand?"

When six doctors in the convention hall raised their hands, Larry pointed to one of them and asked.

"Dr. Paul George?"

As the doctor named Paul George stood up, Larry said,

"Have you ever seen a first-grade antidepressant patient smiling this brightly?"

After a moment of thought, Paul George shook his head.

"No, I haven't, sir."

"That's right. Thank you, please sit down."

"You all must be thinking now, 'How can one photo be evidence?' Okay, let's assume it's rare for him to smile, but it's impossible for a person to never smile in their lifetime, so claiming a photo taken at the moment of a smile as evidence is invalid."

As the doctors nodded in agreement, Larry operated the controller, and the display switched back to a CCTV video.

In the video, Elisha was either sleeping on the bed, eating, or doing daily activities, all being fast-forwarded as Director Murphy watched seriously with crossed arms, murmuring,

"Hmm... seems to have improved though..."

The scene changed to Elisha walking on a hospital trail, with Lisa following a few steps behind, seemingly prepared for any sudden incidents. Elisha's face appeared calm as she walked.

Elisha approached Lisa and said something, causing Lisa to laugh and link arms with her as they entered the hospital. The doctors exclaimed upon seeing this.

"Can she communicate with ordinary people now?"

"Are you saying a first-grade antidepressant patient can do this? And that too within a month? Unbelievable! What has happened?"

"Exactly! It doesn't make sense, explain please, Mr. Larry!"

As the doctors clamored, Larry returned to the podium and spoke into the microphone.

"Haven't I explained already, doctors?"

As he said this, the doctors once again erupted into noise.

"What explanation are you talking about?"

Larry shrugged and pointed to the screen.

"All I've done for the past month is check if the patients listened to music on time. Even that was done by the nurses."

As Larry spoke, Director Murphy, who had stood up by now, pointed at the screen and said in a stunned voice,

"Is this... is this all the improvement we've gotten from just playing music for a month? Was there no other medication?"

"There was none. The only medicine Elisha had during the last two weeks were vitamin supplements."

Murphy looked incredulous as he stuttered,

"Are... are there more sample patients?"

Larry smiled and pressed the PPT controller.

"Yes, four patients have completed the sample treatment, and all are showing improvement."

Larry showed videos of Courtney and Mijin as samples. Courtney was shown with a severe aggression tendency, attacking nurses or doctors with a plastic eating utensil, and unable to sleep at night, twitching her head. Now, her current state showed no head twitching, and although she still appeared tense when someone approached, the previously frequent startles were significantly less. ℞ἈΝ𝙤₿˧

Mijin was shown covering her face and crying all day, and waking up at night to wail. Currently, while still appearing sad, she no longer woke up crying at night, though she occasionally teared up, much less than before.

As the doctors watched in increasing astonishment, Larry spoke.

"Now, the last patient."

As he finished speaking, eight brain MRI images appeared on the screen.

"Barbara Dumas, age 79, suffering from Alzheimer's symptoms for 1 year and 4 months."

Director Murphy turned to the head of the neurology department sitting behind him and asked,

"Why is an Alzheimer's patient in the psychiatric ward? Shouldn't she be in neurology?"

The head of neurology nodded.

"She should be, but Barbara Dumas's memory has deteriorated to such an extent that she couldn't maintain lucidity for even an hour a day, and was moved to the psychiatric ward five months ago."

Murphy turned back and muttered,

"Well... Alzheimer's is a brain disease; music therapy shouldn't work on that."

His muttering changed into a shout of astonishment as Larry continued with a smile.

"I included this patient in the treatment roster hoping that brain diseases might also benefit from music therapy. This was possible because all four patients were in the same room."

Larry explained as the brain MRI appeared on the screen,

"As you all know, Alzheimer's patients suffer from significant cell loss. Barbara Dumas's cortex had shrunk, affecting the areas responsible for thought, planning, and memory."

As he operated the controller, another image appeared.

"The first image you saw was from her first day of

hospitalization, and this image was taken four months later. As you can see, there's damage to the hippocampus, which handles memory."

Larry manipulated the controller again, and a largely blackened brain image appeared.

"And this was taken just before she was moved from neurology to psychiatry. The ventricles (spaces filled with fluid) had enlarged, severely reducing brain function. At that time, she could only maintain lucidity for about one or two hours a day."

Larry stepped forward at the podium.

"As all the doctors here know, most patients with Alzheimer's experience rapid progression of the disease within two years, often only retaining memories from infancy. If you follow the progression in these images taken every four months, you can see how rapidly her brain function was lost. And this is the MRI of the brain taken two days ago."

As he operated the controller, the image appeared, causing the doctors to murmur among themselves. One of the doctors raised a hand after a brief discussion.

"Um... Mr. Larry, there seems to be a mistake in the PPT. This image looks exactly like the one from four months ago."

Larry smiled as he returned to the podium. After looking around at the doctors, he chuckled and said,

"It's no mistake. This MRI was indeed taken two days ago."

The doctors became noisy.

"What?! You mean to say there was no progression of brain damage in four months?"

"How is that possible? Even if the music therapy showed some progress, the rest of the three months should have shown progression."

"There must have been some error, Mr. Larry?"

As Larry listened quietly to the doctors, he approached the microphone, and the doctors quieted down.

"Radiology Professor Jeremy? Are you here?"

A black professor at the back raised his hand, and Larry spoke,

"This shooting was conducted by Professor Jeremy himself. Professor, please speak."

Jeremy, looking slightly nervous under the focused attention, said,

"It was indeed taken two days ago, and I personally compared it and was so surprised that I went to inform Professor Larry."

Jeremy's confirmation was the final blow. Surprised doctors jumped from their seats, causing chairs to crash noisily.

"Is that really true?"

"If this is true, it's big news for the medical community! We need to report this to the medical association immediately!"

"Absolutely, this could be a groundbreaking discovery, sir!"

Amid the clamorous doctors, a serious-looking Murphy raised a hand.

As the doctors quieted down at Murphy's gesture, Larry beckoned him to speak, and Murphy, with a cautious expression, asked,

"Let's be precise. Are you saying it's treated, or that it stopped progressing?"

Larry glanced at the photos and shook his head.

"It's still uncertain. We haven't had enough time to prove that. However, based on these images, it might be inferred that there's a slight therapeutic effect. The cells that should have been damaged in the past three months without music therapy weren't, and that's the evidence."

Murphy nodded as if agreeing and asked,

"Are there only four sample patients?"

"Yes, that's correct."

Murphy stood up, looked around at the doctors, and said,

"Let's increase the number of sample patients, and all psychiatrists should support Mr. Larry fully. This research isn't just for our hospital but could be a discovery for humanity. The hospital will support all costs related to treatment and research."

Murphy's decision was met with nods from the doctors, but a visibly exhausted Larry caught Murphy's attention.

"Mr. Larry? Is there a problem?"

"Uh... actually, this music is part of Kay's official album and is still an unreleased track. The contract with Fantagio was to provide the track to only four sample patients, so increasing the number of sample patients would breach the contract. We need Fantagio's permission and a renegotiation."

Hearing Larry's words, the doctors shouted.

"Are you talking about album profits now? We have a chance to treat a disease that humanity hasn't conquered!"

"Exactly! Is now the time to think about money?"

"Damn it! This is about saving lives; why should we care about such things?"

As the doctors shouted, Murphy raised his hand to calm them down.

"What are you saying? How bad would the person who kindly provided the music feel if they heard your words? Didn't you hear what Mr. Larry just said? We had to beg to get the music.

How can you, under the guise of medicine, take for granted the unconditional sacrifice of someone unrelated to medicine? I too am a doctor who believes there's nothing more important than life, but that's just our belief. Please refrain from making unreasonable statements."

Once quieted down, some doctors seemed to reflect on their statements, while others still appeared dissatisfied.

Murphy, shaking his head at such individuals, said,

"How can intellectuals think like this... Mr. Larry? So when is that album going to be released?"

"Yes,

Director. It's scheduled to be released this winter."

"Hmm... that's quite a wait. We can't wait that long. Please arrange a meeting with the Fantagio representatives after the board meeting."

Understanding that meeting the board meant agreeing to pay for the use of the music, Larry answered brightly and energetically,

"Yes, Director!"

>

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