With Gallow Ejil, grand Demon King, having been denied his precious energy potions, he decides to go to the source: Reiji’s pharmacy!
Poor naïve kid. He thinks he can just waltz into Reiji’s drugstore and demand free potions. xD Haha, not happening. Gallow isn’t as tough as he tries to be though; we can see from his interactions with Reiji that he’s trying very hard to appear big and tough like a demon King “should be,” but is quick to bow down meekly to Reiji’s authority when confronted with his lies and bluffs.
Upon seeing Noela for the first time, Gallow falls immediately in love – hard. He tries to bribe Reiji with control of half the human world in exchange for Noela and a potion, but Reiji shoots him down. Noela’s not property so of course she’s not for sale or trade, and Gallow still doesn’t have enough money to buy anything, so the scene ends with Gallow rushing out of the drugstore in embarrassment.
Gallow shows up three days later with money he’d conned from the villagers of Kalta, but Reiji reveals that they likely gave him their money (spare change, really) because they felt sorry for him, not because they thought he was the Demon King. Gallow still looks like a kid, after all. Reiji caves and offers Gallow one singular potion instead of the two he’d asked for the previous day, but Gallow doesn’t want it. What he wants is for Reiji to treat him like the terrifying and ominous Demon King he’s supposed to be, not like a pitiful kid who’s just messing around.
Then Gallow gets the idea to work for Reiji in his shop in an effort to learn how to make energy potions. He theorizes that once he is able to make Noela as many potions as she wants without having to go through Reiji, then Noela will happily be his wife. (The whole concept is a little insulting as a female, but I get that Gallo
w’s supposed to be really naïve and kinda dumb about how humans work, so I’ll cut the plot a little slack.)
Once again, Reiji rejects Gallow’s proposal. Reiji doesn’t want half the world to own and run; he just wants to work in his drugstore with Noela and Mina. But when Reiji sees that he’s not going to be able to get rid of Gallow, he reluctantly allows the kid to help out in the pharmacy on weekends. I wonder what Gallow’s underlings thought when they heard he had a part-time job!
In addition to learning how to make energy potions, Gallow’s idea to work in Reiji’s drugstore also has a bit of an ulterior motive: he wants to be close to Noela. Kid’s got a crush on her after all. But there’s an issue with his plan, and it’s a big one. You see, Noela wants nothing to do with Gallow. ^^;; Like at all. And perhaps because he can’t correctly interpret human behavior, he’s not used to rejection, or his ego can’t handle the rejection, Gallow doesn’t understand that Noela doesn’t like him.
During a quiet tea break with Reiji, Gallow asks for some help with a couple of his supernatural-related issues (winning a battlefront and reviving some dead demon kings, wtf!). Upon being swiftly turned down by Reiji for what feels like the dozenth time, Gallow shyly asks if Reiji would help him figure out Noela’s “true feelings” for him by creating a special medicine.
And OF COURSE Reiji wouldn’t dare commit yet another medical ethical violation- wait what? He will? Reiji’s going to create some kind of truth serum for Noela to take without her knowledge of what it actually is?! Reiji, for shame! ಠ_ಠ
Reiji creates a yellow serum that looks like cat pee and gives it to Noela under the pretense of it being a new potion for her to taste test. And sure enough, yep! Reiji and Gallow can hear Noela’s innermost thoughts!
Poor Gallow gets his fragile crush stomped right into the dirt as both Noela’s innermost self and outer words express (very bluntly!) that she doesn’t care about Gallow at all. However Gallow isn’t about to accept this rejection from his One True Love and as he repeatedly insists that he can make Noela learn to love him if he learns to make potions like Reiji, she gets more and more pissed off. Finally Noela tail whips him through a door and into the hallway in frustration.
However, Reiji and Noela have made a critical error: they left the remaining bit of Give It To Me Straight potion unattended. And who should come across it but Mina…?
This scene with Mina is the best part of the entire episode! We already knew that Inner Mina had a bit of a naughty side, but now apparently she’s also rather rude and bossy too! She’s so different from Mina’s outer personality that Reiji labels Mina’s inner thoughts Dark Mina! xD
Dark Mina can only be subdued when Noela, listening to Mina’s inner thoughts, gives Mina a superb back rub. Gallow, Reiji and Noela then take the rest of the day off to completely clean the building from top to bottom AND cook dinner for everyone. It’s a peaceful end to a rather tumultuous day. Whew!
I’ll give Drugstore in Another World credit, I didn’t think we’d see Gallow Ejil in all his glory until closer to the end of the season but I clearly called that one wrong. I think that his earlier appearance is great as it gives Gallow more time to become an actual part of the cast instead of just a small bit character in the last episode or two. His appearance also helps balance out this reverse harem a bit more, for whatever that’s worth. It’s a little refreshing to see a guy chasing after a girl in an episode instead of a girl chasing after Reiji.
