NovelPantheon

Matthew Jaune

Orange-ranked Twilight Regularbrokertechnician

Biography

Zero's coerced recruitment

Matthew begins as a restaurant waiter who supplements his income through Twilight under the alias Zero, repairing devices and recovering accounts while slowly building an orange-ranked membership. Brandon identifies him, threatens to destroy the black card on which his livelihood depends, and binds him through Retribution against betrayal or disclosure. The arrangement is coercive even though it offers legal protection and high pay; once Matthew explains his experience erasing traces from bank-account intrusions, Brandon recruits him specifically for technical access rather than combat. (Chapters 223–224)

Opening Twilight and the auction

Matthew risks his credentials to register Moriarty, guides Brandon through the blackmarket's zones, introduces the device economy, purchases auction access, and keeps communications functioning underground through the Twilight Device. During the raid, Zed gives him auction-database access, allowing Matthew to configure systems, coordinate the arriving Imperial Army force, and support the shutdown while wounded officers retreat to his position. His access is indispensable, but he remains anxious around the combatants and consistently prefers technical distance from violence. (Chapters 225–253)

Enterprise work and Lianna's files

After Twilight's fall, Matthew joins Brandon, Zed, Charles Deus, and Ironaxe in Locke Enterprise, helping present reconstructed artifact technology to Bellion and serving as the group's practical technician. He later finds the elusive hacker Nathan through magical and conventional tracing. At the endpoint, Matthew and Nathan breach Lianna's desktop through Brandon's planted drive, copy heavily encrypted fragments, erase the digital trail, and continue processing the evidence while questioning the obsessive scale of Brandon's operation. (Chapters 273–274, 298, 425–426)

Appearance and personality

Matthew has green hair and black eyes and initially appears in a waiter's uniform before using a black mask for blackmarket travel. He is nervous, conflict-averse, and visibly intimidated by rankers, officers, Zed, and Ironaxe, but becomes more conversational once discussing systems he understands. His practical skepticism survives recruitment: he wants money and safety, can joke or drink with his associates, and supports illegal intrusion without pretending that Brandon's methods or motives are ordinary. (Chapters 223–226, 245, 251, 426)

Magic and abilities

  • Lightning affinity: Lightning emits from Matthew while he explains his technical work, and Brandon identifies the affinity as a natural fit for his chosen profession. The corpus does not assign Matthew a combat rank or demonstrate a developed lightning attack, so its established use remains technical rather than martial. (Chapter 224)
  • Hacking and trace removal: Matthew can recover accounts, penetrate financial and private systems, erase evidence of entry, unlock Lianna's desktop remotely, and scrub the team's digital footprint. He works best with access, preparation, and specialized partners rather than as an isolated battlefield hacker. (Chapters 223–224, 253, 298, 425–426)
  • Twilight brokerage: As Zero, he understands patron ranks, cards, registration, market zones, communications, tickets, and database infrastructure. His orange rank limits prestige, but his older membership and operational knowledge let him sponsor Moriarty's entry and coordinate a force far stronger than himself. (Chapters 223–233, 251–253)
  • Artifact operations: Matthew supports Ironaxe and the enterprise team in handling, demonstrating, and reproducing blackmarket technology. His role is logistical and technical; the source does not credit him with Ironaxe's dwarven artificing feats. (Chapters 245, 251, 273–274)

Relationships

  • Brandon Locke: Brandon recruits Matthew through a lethal Retribution condition, then pays and relies on him as a broker, technician, and hacker. Their productive partnership never erases the compromised consent at its beginning.
  • Zed Alistar: Zed supplies cover, database access, and assurance that Matthew's work fits the larger anti-Twilight operation. They later become Locke Enterprise colleagues and share concern about Brandon's increasingly obsessive tactics.
  • Ironaxe: Ironaxe dismisses and intimidates Matthew but repeatedly uses him as a practical assistant. Their enterprise work connects Matthew's systems knowledge to Ironaxe's artifact engineering.
  • Charles Deus: Charles joins Matthew in the business side of Brandon's coalition, providing a commercial counterpart to Matthew's technical work during the transition into Locke Enterprise.
  • Nathan Ramsay: Matthew helps locate Nathan and later works beside him on Lianna's encrypted files. Matthew concentrates on access and trace removal while Nathan reconstructs fragmented data.

Items

  • Twilight Device: Matthew owns and operates the card-reader and account system used to access credits, communicate underground, verify patron identity, and register Brandon's Moriarty persona. (Chapters 223–233)
  • Elemental Amulet: As Locke Enterprise's technician, Matthew assists the team that presents and develops reconstructed Sevenfold Resonance technology, though Ironaxe remains the principal artificer. (Chapters 273–274)