Chapter 713 (Patreon)

A/N : Small edits made to better show that Lexi did know about the Trait even if Aurexion didn't. I was focusing on Aurexion's reaction to that and more on Lexi's for the otherworld didn't realize it read like Lexi was in the dark about the Trait.

Unlike the day before Ajax and Lexi didn’t bother to attend court early in the day. They both knew the announcement would only come at the end of the day and they would be there for that but since the king would be stepping down it would be done as the last order of business. Ajax and Lexi were with Aurexion in the inner court of the imperial palace instead.

‘Should I tell them?’ That was the question on Ajax’s mind. With only Lexi and Aurexion here there was nobody else here and Ajax was considering sharing his biggest secret with his lover and bond. Should he share the information about his previous life and his Divine Witness Trait? 

The reason this was coming up was because Ajax would need to explain how he knew about building boats, small rafts were already a thing but big cargo ships were not. There was always the option to lie and say he saw it on a dungeon floor during his time in the Wild Lands but the question was did he want to do that?

The issue was that the explanation left a few holes as well, after all Ajax had started construction for a port city before he left for the Wild Lands, not to mention that while the lake on the border between the Empire and Gryndor was big the more valuable resource would be the Trailblazer Skills and Achievements his House could monopolize. 

In the end Ajax decided to bite the bullet and come clean about his origins. These were the two most important people in his life and if he was to share this with the rest of his family later he would need their support, after all they weren’t related to him by blood. Ajax was still slightly worried about how his parents, grandparents and siblings might react since there was a chance they could see it as his soul stealing his current body. 

“Something secret?” Aurexion tilted his head in interest as Ajax activated a privacy barrier, seeing as they were in the royal palace it meant that this was something he wanted to hide from the royal family as they would be the only ones able to overhear. 

“Yeah…” Ajax said with a nervous chuckle. “The last big secret I have that the two of you don’t know. It’s who I am.”

“You’re Ajax.” Aurexion scoffed while Lexi was looking at her fiance with a small haunted look, she had heard stories about skinwalkers and for a moment she had been worried but Aurexion’s words helped her relax, she knew there was no way to trick the bond. His following words only reassured her further since there was of course a small chance that the skin walker swapped with Ajax while he was in the Wild Lands before the bond happened. “Says so in your System Status.” 

“No need to worry about that.” Ajax quickly said as he realized the fear on Lexi’s face. “What I meant was, who I was before I was born as Ajax.” 

“Before you were born?” Aurexion was suddenly very curious. 

“Yes.” Ajax nodded. “The theory of rebirth has quite a lot of merit. One thing that nobody has theorized about is that this world isn’t the only one out there.”  

“Not the only world?” Lexi asked, feeling more confused than scared with where the conversation was going, her political Skills and training the only reason she didn’t start asking more questions and waited for the answer. 

“My memory of the afterlife isn’t great.” Ajax scratched the back of his head as he thought of how to word it. “Most I can remember from it is impressions here and there probably because I didn’t have a body or a brain during that time.” 

“That implies that you do remember another world.” Now it was Aurexion who sounded skeptical. 

“I do.” Ajax nodded. “Though it was a world without Mana so my memory of that world isn’t as clear as I can remember my life here. Though life there was a lot different from life here there are a few things I have been able to carry over.”

“Cement…” Lexi latched on to the most obvious example. She had been with Ajax almost throughout the process and with this apparent revelation his stubbornness and surety of himself suddenly made a lot more sense. 

“Cement is one of those things, yes.” Ajax agreed. “Beekeeping is another.”  

“How did you end up keeping your memories?” Aurexion asked, unlike Lexi the only thing odd about Ajax to Aurexion was his power but extremely powerful individuals could come along even if it was extremely rare. 

“Something must have gone wrong when I died.” Ajax said as he struggled to focus on anything he could remember from right after the mugging where he died but even with all his focus the only thing he could even briefly catch glimpses of was his eventual encounter with the deity. “I can’t remember what happened after that but I know one of the gods happened upon my soul.” 

“One of the gods?” Aurexion’s eyes opened wide. “Which one?”

“I don’t know, I just know it wasn’t Death.” Ajax answered. The clearest part he could recall about his time in the afterlife were the words the god had spoken, like even his words had power. “Aparently having me rejoin the cycle of rebirth the normal way would have required his intervention and the god who found me didn’t want to involve him.” 

“So you’re claiming to have met a god and be from another world.” Aurexion still seemed reluctant to accept that. “If that’s true, was your name only Ajax, or was that your name in the other world as well.” 

“He did meet a god.” Lexi knew about the Divine Witness trait, she didn’t know the circumstances and was pretty sure Ajax didn’t either since he had said he’d always had the trait. She was sure the god had revealed themselves to him as a child and Ajax couldn’t remember it but now she was finding out the rest.

“The other world didn’t have a System and this world has only known me as Ajax.” the explanation was pretty simple. “But there is something I do have proof of that you can see, check my status again.” 

Reading a dragon’s expression wasn’t easy for humans yet both Lexi and Ajax could clearly see the change as Aurexion opened up Ajax’s status page. This time however there was something new there that hadn’t been there a few seconds before when Aurexion had checked Ajax’s name. A Trait, definitive proof about part of his claim. 

“You really did meet a god.” Aurexion’s got out, if he had been humanoid he was sure his jaw would have been on the floor but apparently dragon mouth’s didn’t drop open from shock. “This trait also clearly explains your abnormal Status, but you must have worked extremely hard for it too.” 

The silence stretched for a few seconds as Aurexion and Lexi were accepting the truth. Lexi was not having too hard a time coming to terms with Ajax’s reveal, after all he was still the same quirky Ajax he had always been. His reasons for being so paranoid were more clear however since without a lot of trust such a reveal would clearly have him killed back when he was weaker.

“Does your family know?” Lexi asked after a while.

“No…” Ajax said, a little nervous. “While I have been Ajax since birth I’m more reluctant to tell them about it. I think originally this body was meant to have been a still birth, that there was no soul which is why I could inhabit it. But explaining that is something I’d rather not attempt without help or higher social Skills.” 

“If you’ve been keeping this all a secret for so long, why tell us now?” Lexi asked. 

“The reason for why now is because of the new city I was so insistent on.” Ajax answered. “Having to explain why I thought my ideas would work and willing to gamble such investments on it without other knowledge would just spread into a web of lies. And I didn’t want to lie, not to you. I’ve also wanted to stop keeping the secret of my rebirth and this was a good opportunity to come clean about it.” 

Once Ajax’s explanation was accepted the flood gates to questions were opened. Over the next few hours both Lexi and Aurexion asked question after question about what Ajax could remember from his life on Earth. Incredulity about a world without Mana or a system was something that was hard for both of them to get their minds around. One where humans were not only the top of the food chain but standing at the top alone and by a wide margin was a massive blow to Aurexion’s ego softened only by Ajax’s repeated reassurance that dragons didn’t inhabit the world and that while stories about dragons existed they were always peak being above humans in those stories as well.

Explaining the scientific method, the consistency of physics in the absence of Mana and the prevalence of schools from the nineteenth century onwards didn’t hold all that much importance for Aurexion but Lexi as the granddaughter of the foremost spell researcher had a lot to gain from the explanation of Ajax’s life as a student and had a new appreciation for Ajax’s insistence on schools.

Their conversation was cut short by the appearance of the palace guards. It seems that the three of them had lost track of time, understandable given the topic they were discussing but the announcement was drawing close and they wanted to be in attendance at court. House Hearthbound swearing fealty to the new king would do a lot to make the transition smoother with the influence they now had. Even with the conversation cut short however Ajax knew it was by no means over, merely delayed.