A Little Backstory

While Ace played the game, he added some cheat codes into the game and a secret story unlocked.

This story took place when Ajax was only four or five years old.

His mother screamed in horror after Ace was born and she remained in her bed, not willing to come out or even take care of the baby.

Ajax did not care too much about Ace at first, he never had siblings that had to be taken care of and he did not know how to take care of a child.

But as the baby slowly began to starve from lack of food and clung to him with watery, helpless eyes, he couldn't help see what he could do for him.

The cook and maids told him to get the milk from the cows in the palace and give it to the baby.

Since the baby had to drink several times a day, he would have to take the long three-hour walk to the castle and come back with a bucket of milk which he boiled and then fed to the baby.

He almost burnt Ace's tongue when he did not check the temperature before giving him the milk and the baby screamed in pain.

He was more careful then.

One day, the king summoned him to the court and Ajax went to him, carrying Ace in his arms.

"Why do you have a baby in your hands?" The king had asked as he stared at Ajax carrying a bag over his shoulders filled with milk in bottles while Ace slept in his arms.

Safe to say, he made an impression on the entire courtroom.

"I cannot leave him home alone," he answered straightforwardly.

"What about your mother?" The king asked back, amused.

"She is ... ill." He only said. "May I know why I am here?"

"You are my children." The king extended his hands. "It is my duty to care for you. Because she gave me two children, I will overlook her transgression and restore her palace and servants."

Transgression? Ace thought. What did she do? He looked where he could, but he couldn't find any backstory on the queen or what might have panned to her.

They all moved back to the palace and the queen seemed to get better with the servants there to tend to her and her needs. She was even smiling more, though never at Ace.

Ajax bought a cow at the suggestion of the palace cook and learnt how to get milk from it as Ace liked drinking it more than he could care to admit.

Ace, the player, never thought that Ajax did like Ace, the character. It seemed like he did everything out of duty to his mother, and now, to his father.

He would feed him when needed and play with him, though he never really smiled or showed that he enjoyed doing it. He thought that he learnt to pretend over the years but, boy, was he wrong.

The next part of the story took place when Ace was one or two years old.

Though the king did give them back the palace and some servants, there was no proper security in this palace. One of the reasons why Ajax took to learning how to fight even though he was so young at that time.

Ace would watch as his brother learned how to swing a sword, getting hurt occasionally. It is worse when he would cut himself and start to bleed.

Baby Ace would run to him as quickly as his little legs would allow and cry when he saw the blood or injuries. Ajax would not say a word and just pat his head with a blank stare on his face.

He would carry Ace in, give him something to play with, bandage himself up and go back to practising immediately. This went on for a very long time, no one outside of the people in the palace knew he was training.

"Do you wish to become part of the siblings the king favours?" One of the maids asked Ajax, who was carrying Ace, playing with his hair, while she bandaged up his arm.

Ajax had kept his hair long and Ace just loved playing with it. Ajax never did complain about it so he thought that it didn't matter to him.

"Why would I wish to be associated with him?" he had asked plainly.

"Ah, I see." She only said.

____________________

One day, Ajax was out in the gardens, late at night, practising his sword swinging when he heard a scream.

Rushing into the castle, he followed the slew of blood that scattered all around the floor. The bodies of the maids and butlers laid on the floor as he continued to walk.

He continued to walk until he heard sobbing and begging coming from his brother's room.

Once he entered the room he saw his mother offering his brother to a group of people in the room.

"Just take him! I don't even want him. But leave Ajax alone." She shouted, shoving Ace to them.

Ace tried to hold onto his mother's arm but she kept pushing him to those people whose back are to him.

"Mother?" Ajax stepped into the room. "What are you doing?"

"Ajax." She said with her tear-stained face as relief washed over her face. "Thank goodness you are alright."

"What are you doing with Ace?" He asked, looking at the little boy red nose and red eyes as he tried not to cry out.

Ace, upon hearing Ajax's voice, turned to him, "Ajax."

"Come here, Ace," he said, bending down with his arms open as the boy ran to him.

As the boy passed the group of people, Ajax noticed how one of them raised a sword and was about to cut the boy down.

Without batting an eye, he swung the sword in his hands and the person's arm came clean off.

Screams filled the room as Ace reached Ajax and the boy covered him with a cloth.

"Just sleep," he said, putting a spell on the boy who promptly fell asleep.

He made sure Ace was positioned carefully in his arms before turning to them, "Now, care to tell me what happened here?"

"Y-you!" The girl shouted, running to him.

Ajax did not have to blink as he sliced her in half, organs splaying all around the floor with the blood staining the carpet.

"Please explain to me what y-" The other three did not wait as they charged to attack the boy who took them out without batting an eye.

He stared at the bodies on the floor and turned to the woman crying her eyes out, "Mother. Will you tell me what happened?"

"He looks too much like your father." She sobbed, shaking uncontrollably. "They are his other children and they think he will get his powers so they want to kill him before it manifests."

"Hmmm?" He tilted his head to the side and looked at Ace sleeping soundly in his arms. "Is that so?"

"Yes, so you should just kill him and be over with." She looked up at him, eyes wide with frantic as tears continued to run down her face.

"You feel like you are responsible for him right? Well, you don't have to anymore. You are such a good child, so responsible. This thorn on your side wi-"

She paused when the blade of the sword was pressed against her throat.

"Call him a thorn on my side one more time, and I will not hesitate to kill you too mother." He said, pulling the sword away. "From today onwards, he is going to sleep with me in my room."

He paused in front of the bodies and waved his hands as their bodies glowed and then broke into little specks of light.

These light particles followed him as he put a small piece into every servant, dead on the ground.

Just like that, their injures disappeared and they sat back up like nothing happened.

They did not seem to have any memory of what had happened just a few minutes ago and just went about their day, or night.

Ever since that day, Ajax would sleep with Ace in his room and the boy was more than happy to be able to be with Ajax even more.

A couple of years later, he hid away his powers for reasons Ace, the player, doesn't know. There was no more side story on this and he couldn't even find this one anymore even as he typed in the code to this story.

Strange. The boy thought but it was because of this story that his fondness for Ajax grew and, when he had to kill Ajax, he was busy bawling his eyes out.

"He deserved better." He sobbed, killing him. "You can kill me! Come on! Do it!"

Even as he slowly died, the last thing Ajax did was smile at his little brother saying, "It's ok. You did the right thing. It's ok, don't cry. Good job. I couldn't be prouder of my little brother."