To the first question: Absolutely. It must've been jarring for everyone to see how much his personality changed upon his return. And it's a pretty normal reaction as well. A shy, sweet child goes missing for several days, is found again, and can suddenly bring down men twice his size and age? It's a confusing, strange situation for those on the outside. And realistically, there'd be numerous stories spawning from a phenomenon like this; people would surely accuse of him being possessed, being replaced by a demon, etc.

As for the second question: I think people were terrified of him. I imagine it a bit similarly to Naruto, if you've ever seen it.

In case you haven't, Naruto had a nine-tailed demon fox sealed inside of him when he was a baby. Because of this, he was isolated from both other children and adults alike. His entire village feared him, hated him even. Parents would swiftly pull their children from the playgrounds, businesses would deny him service...he was essentially mistreated by almost everyone.

This is mostly how I imagine things went after Ajax returned to his village. Parents probably kept their kids away from him, adults possibly shunned him, and other young villagers may have avoided him of their own accord. Any friends he might have had prior to his fall most likely avoided him as well, or were advised to do so.

So in short, I think he experienced extreme isolation, and that it played a significant role in how he behaves now as a young adult.