Berne Darshi Armelia

Light Novel

**Berne Darshi Armelia** (ベルン・ターシ・アルメリア, *Berun Tashi Arumeria*) is the younger brother of Iris, the first son of and heir to the Armelia House. He is one of the capture targets in the game.

He was formerly part of Edward's entourage. He eventually distances himself after visiting the Armelia estate and seeing what Iris has managed to accomplish in the span of two years.

## Appearance

He has long auburn hair that's braided neatly over his shoulders and sharp blue eyes. He also has piercings on both ears.

During his time in the Royal Academy, he is seen most often in his school uniform. In casual events, he dresses more formally in a dress shirt with his sleeves folded above his elbows. He wears a light-colored tie with a dark-colored vest and trousers, along with black gloves. In formal events, he dresses more formally with darker colors.

## Personality

He is particularly hot-headed and speaks his mind. Berne is particularly hardworking and intelligent as he repeatedly scores the highest in his classes and also remembered things after hearing it once. He is also noted to be strict on himself. He was overconfident in his abilities, naive and love-struck. His arrogance was continuously fed by Yuri's praise.

He is often aloof and spends his time alone during school hours before he met Yuri. After falling in love with Yuri, he ignored his duties as the heir of the Armelia house. Spending majority of his time with Yuri and Edward, Berne lost the trust of his parents.

Berne is also selfish, knowing that his love for Yuri will not be requited, he still remains by her side to protect her happiness, even if it means standing against his own sister.

But after visiting his exiled sister, he is forced to realize his shortcomings as well as the reality of his standing with the family. Despite be an accomplished student, he saw that he had not actually done anything of value. He had difficulty keeping up with the other employees even if he was able to more or less grasp it. He also had difficulty understanding the value of educating commoners until his sister forced him to attend a few classes. After seeing what his sister had accomplished while he more or less wasted his time by comparison, he strived to reform himself.

After realizing his faults, he begins distancing himself from Edwar’s group, and he works hard under his father to regain the trust he lost, and prove himself worthy. He also becomes genuinely remorseful for the role he played in his sister’s humiliation. He offered a sincere apology. While she acknowledged his apology was genuine, Berne understood why his sister could not forgive him.

During Volume 04, his personality darkens a bit after witnessing a town in the aftermath of a flood along with the consequences being led by a noble who had foolishly sold the emergency food supply to line his own pockets. He works with Alfread to root out all the corrupt nobles without mercy. Both Iris and Alfread acknowledged that he’s changed from who he used to be in the Academy.

Despite the strides he made, Berne comes to realize that he still falls short to his sister as he is willing to let her become the heir of House Armelia in his place.

## History

He was born to Louis de Armelia, the Duke of the Armelia house and prime minister, and Merellis Reiser Armelia, the only daughter of the General Gazell Daz Anderson.

At a young age, it was mentioned that he used to dance with his sister often.

During his time in the Royal Academy, he spends majority of his time alone and holds examinations in low regard. Once when he was not bothered to look at his grades, he was approached by Yuri. Being amazed by Berne's intellect, Yuri praised Berne for being the top in the examinations. Berne initially brushed off her praise while Yuri chided him in return. Yuri pointed out that scoring top repeatedly is not an easy feat and can only be done by those who work hard continuously. She found it amazing and wanted Berne to be proud of what he did.

Since then, Yuri approached Berne repeatedly for help in her studies, even claiming that her grades improved thanks to his help. Eventually, Berne felt that Yuri became someone he can't live without.

Even if it is within the academy, their social standing still mattered and all the action of noble were seen as political. His father advised Berne to avoid Edward at all cost, since his sister was engaged to Edward and his father wanted him to ally with the first prince to keep their neutral stance. But, Berne on his own accord moved towards Edward's entourage because of Yuri, despite his father's warnings. This action of Berne would falsely signal other nobles that the Armelia family support the second prince, since his sister, Iris, was already engaged to Edward. It disrupted the power balance his father wanted to maintain. This worried his father, who then repeated his warnings, but Berne failed to understand the meaning. His father understood the situation and was plotting to cancel Iris's engagement under the pretext of her health.

When Berne found out that his sister was apparently the one responsible for harassing Yuri, their relationship soured. However, he neglected to find out that while Iris had insulted Yuri, there were others who had been harassing her, and Iris was being used as a scapegoat. Due to lacking foresight of the consequences of his actions, he accused and denounced her coldly in public view along with Edward's entourage.

## Plot

### A Twist of Fate

When Iris was being held down by Dorssen Kataberia, Berne didn't even raise a finger to aid his sister. Instead, he admonished and humiliated her in-front of the academy. He wasn't concerned about his sister's engagement being annulled or that she was banished from the academy. Because of him siding with Edward, his family couldn't take any action against the Baron house or the Kataberia family. His family was disappointed in him for not protecting his family or rather stand against his own with his father openly expressing annoyance at Berne for failing to distance himself from the second prince when he was supposed to be objective.

After this incident, his entire house, including their servants, disregarded Berne and allied with Iris. He received cold stares or frown from them, especially from Tanya. He didn't come to his house during his long academy vacations and spent time with Edward's entourage instead of managing his family's fief or learning the work from his father.

After his mother refused to attend the royal ball. Berne was furious and went to confront her in their Fief, claiming that, by not attending the engagement ball of the royal family, she was sullying their family name. Merellis called him out on his words and reminded him that inviting her to the engagement that was made after annulling her own daughter's engagement was idiotic, and also added that she received permission from the higher-ups. She proceeded to berate Berne for his actions and pointed out the possibility of her disowning him as long as he continues to be the way he was. She also added that his sister was doing an excellent job in managing the fief. After Berne asked for the reason of appointing his sister to be a proxy head instead of banishing her, Merellis requested Iris to let him witness her work.

After seeing how hard Iris had worked as a fief lord, Berne was shocked and could not comprehend much of their discussion or work, despite being the top student at the academy. His pride in knowing everything was crushed. He learned the value of experience.

After returning back to the capital, Berne went to his father and begged to receive his teaching. Under the strict supervision of his father, he was forced to tackle many challenges and was forced to stay up all night in order to handle it. He was mortified by learning all the horrifying things going on because of Edward's action or Yuri's suggestion. He distanced himself from Yuri and returned to his family to improve as the next head.

When Iris returns to the capital for the first time in two years, he informs Iris that Edward and Yuri would be at the party to which Iris expresses surprise that Berne seems to care about her.

### A Twist of Fate

Prior to the ball, he informed Edward and his entourage that would not be able to accompany them directly due to his family obigations. He neglected to inform them that he would be escorting his sister Iris to the party.

### Life and Death Lie in Her Hands

In the aftermath of the Iris saving herself from excommunication, he receives some 'homework' from his father that he figures was vital information that he would pass on to his sister, so he decides to consult with her about it.

### Life and Death Lie in Her Hands

When queen Dowgwar asked of his past he replied that he had the opportunity to look at himself after graduating the school and he was not the same person he was back then. He accepted that in his school days, he foolishly broke everything.

He encounters Leticia Tasmeria where they speak about their respective older siblings.

### The Price of War

He becomes closer to Leticia. He witnesses the death of Edward firsthand.

While Iris married Dean, Berne married Leticia.

## Relationships

### Family

**Iris Lana Armelia**

Berne's older sister with a difference of one year. Berne was someone who was precious to Iris and they were close since young. In their childhood, Iris unintentionally hurt Berne, which earned her the cold gaze of their mother that prompted her to keep her distance from Berne. Though both of them went to the same academy, they were of different years and entourages so they did not interact at school.

When Berne found out that Iris was harassing Yuri, he accused her along with Edward and his entourage. Iris was shocked that her own brother denounced her in public. Rather, than seeing her as his sister, he thought of her as a game piece to approach or gain the affection of Baron's daughter and abandoned her.

Since then, they did not meet for 2 years. He didn't care for his exiled sister and the opposite was true as well. Iris begins to feel that Berne was a pebble in the roadside and had no feelings toward him.

When Berne came to the fief to persuade his mother to attend the engagement party between Edward and Yuri, he could not even recognize his sister sitting with their mother, and when he realized the fact, he insulted her by saying that she used to be fatter when she was younger. He refused to accept the fact that his sister was given the role of overlooking their family's fief, but was shocked by her tremendous efforts after seeing her work.

He was also berated by Iris as his current state is not suitable to inherit the title of Duke from their father, let alone the Prime Minister. Iris pointed out that Berne had mixed his own personal feelings into his duties and warned him that he will soon meet a similar fate as her, who also mixed her feelings in her action. All of Iris's words and advice begins to haunt Berne and initiated his reform.

When Iris was invited to foundation party, he showed concern for his sister, unsure what would happen to her as both Edward and Yuri are there.

Berne apologized to his sister for what he has done and understood that she had acted out of her feelings, just as he did. He understood that she could not forgive him and felt guilty for taking away Iris' opportunity to experience school life. Iris accepted his apology but could not forgive him, later wondering if she became so heartless she couldn't forgive her own sibling (though she was eventually told otherwise by Dean).

Berne felt guilty of his actions and feels disdain towards himself. He remember all the warm memories, emotions he shared with his sister, during his childhood. He was filled with remorse and lamented for rupturing his family bond .

He tried to redeem himself for all his shortcomings and swear to never let his past repeat itself. Berne was proud of his sister's governance of their territory and always accompanied her at balls as her escort and dance partner.

At the end of Volume 04, Iris acknowledges that Berne might’ve become worthy of becoming the governor, and she plans to resign when her time as acting governor are over.

Leticia Tasmeria

He came to meet Lectia when delivering the message to Dowager Queen. Both of them were not aware of who the other person was. They started a friendly conversation and found that both had a troubling relationship with their siblings. He also admitted he ruined things for his sister, and he felt guilty for it while Leticia mentioned how much her brother has needed to protect her. Their new found friendship blossomed and took a new path in their subsequent meetings.

They eventually married, and Leticia was the one that proposed to him. They remain married long after the events of the main series.

Louis de Armelia

After being put in his place by his sister, Berne returns to the capital and tells his father that he wishes to be trained by him, so he could be worthy of his future position as Prime Minister. Louis works Berne extra hard, so he can make up for his two year absence.

Merellis Reiser Armelia

During Volume 02, Merellis is rather impressed that Berne managed to resist Yuri's charms. While she acknowledges that he made progress, she makes it clear that he has not done enough to make up for the mistakes he made over the two years he was making a fool of himself. Berne accepted that.

### Edward's Entourge

Edward Tone Tasmeria

Berne was a former entourage of Edward because of Yuri. Despite his father's warning, Berne followed Yuri in the end following Edward. When Edward became the love interest of Yuri, he held back his feelings and wanted to protect Yuri's happiness. Despite of the fact that Edward was engaged to his own sister. He admonished his sister along with Edward for bullying Yuri. He went as far as to lash out his own mother for not attending Edward's engagement with Yuri.

When Berne was reawakened to his sense. He began to see the flaws of Edward and tried to express his concern which only earned him the ire of Edward. He slowly distanced himself from them but continued to inform his father about the discussions in Edward's entourages.

Berne was getting irritated by Edward with each passing day. Beginning with the abandonment of the engagement, the excommunication of the church, the harassment to the Azuta Corporation, and the obligations imposed to the Duke of Armenia. He vowed never to return to Edward side ever again and was Favoring the first prince to ascend the throne like his father wanted.

Yuri Neuer

Berne had an unrequited love for Yuri, remaining good friends with her though she had feelings for Edward. He was content just by staying her side and protecting her happiness.

He even accused his own sister after he found out that Yuri was being harassed by her, souring his own relations with his family in order to protect Yuri. Despite his father's warnings, Berne remained by Yuri's side along with Edward.

However, after studying under his father, he realized that all their actions had dire consequence. He was also shocked to learn of Yuri's desire for more gifts from Edward that weighed heavily on the country's treasury. He tried to persuade Edward to not hold another Alm giving event in regards to the country's shrinking budget, and was taken aback when Yuri claimed that Edward can do whatever he wants due to his status as a prince. He was even more horrified when Yuri went on about disbanding the military in order to increase the country's budget. He reported to father and grandparent what Yuri had suggested. Since then, Berne avoided hanging around her, returning to his family's side.

After dancing with his sister during the Country Founding Celebration, Yuri pulled him aside to speak. He treated Yuri coldly, telling her that it is wrong for them to speak so casually since her engagement to Edward was official. She then asked that they are not allowed to converse even as friends, before being shut down by Berne as the way they are seen are different. He claimed that he avoided speaking with her to ensure there are no misunderstandings. Yuri grew worried for Berne as she barely saw him as of late and hoped that he wasn't pushing himself too hard. Berne brushed off her concerns,

Berne stated that Yuri was like someone from a dream, and pushed her away by stating that he lived in reality and asking her to continue living in her fantasy. He claimed that he used to be captivated by her as dreams are a place to escape from reality, but then added that dreams are still illusions and impossible to come into existence. When asked by his family why he didn't pursue her as he had done so before, Berne said he had to wake up.

He was there to witness Yuri being arrested by Alfreda’s men. He said nothing as this was taking place to further cement that all ties between them had been permanently severed.

### Armelia Family Servants & Azuta Corporation Workers

Tanya

Knowing Berne partiicapted in Iris' humilation she continues to display a lack of respect for him even after he attempted to redeem himself. She was the only servant willing to restrain and escort Berne out on Merellis' orders.

### Others

Iria Fons Tasmeria

He speaks with her directly during Volume 4 to act as his father's place following his injury.

## Trivia

* There were translation issues regarding whether his name was 'Bern' or 'Berne'.
* Even after he manages to turn his attitude around, his parents still favor Iris over him due to losing their trust for two years.