I think it’s very interesting that in the same chapter where we’re told that Noe’s never met another Archiviste before he immediately sees who he then presumes to be another Archiviste.
Despite the inference of people knowing he’s an Archiviste due to how he looks (dark skin, light hair), Noe didn’t really have a reference point of no, really, all Archiviste’s have that trait, until M57 from what he was told (second-hand) by Jean-Jacques, who got that information from Chloe.
Way back in earlier chapters, it’s implied that Noe doesn’t have many (if any) memories of his life before his human grandparents. Is this due to age, or some sort of trauma resulting from why he was abandoned in the human world by himself, presumably around the time that his clan/family was wiped out? Up until this chapter we’ve been told by other characters that Noe is the last surviving Archiviste, and that something happened to wipe the rest of the clan out.
And now, in this chapter, we are abruptly shown another “Archiviste”. (In quotes because the only reason we are presuming the new character is an Archiviste is because they match Noe’s color palette/the appearance described by Jean-Jacques and the fact that they showed up right after Noe expressing an internal desire to know if there are more Archivistes out there.)
My ponderings are: is this new character actually someone Noe is seeing in the present? Or are we about to start getting memories of Noe’s own past, and the new character is going to appear in some manner as a figure of his past? Is it both?
I know a strong argument for the individual Noe saw being someone in the present because the back and forth of them clearly noticing him, smirking, and then vanishing. Consider this as well: All we know about definitively for Archivistes is that they are “those who inherit memories through blood.” But is being able to only inherit memories through blood dangerous enough to warrant some faction to wipe out the entirety of the clan, leaving 1(+?) survivors? Or, (like how some others have theorized) do the Archivistes have other memory-related abilities, such as tampering/removing/implanting memories into others which is what led to the desire to wipe them out?
(Also, different note: who wiped out the Archivistes in the first place? Was it the Church? Or was it other vampires who saw the Archivistes and their ability/abilities as a threat?)
Could a fellow Archiviste (the one in M57 for example) have tampered with young Noe’s memories at the time the clan was wiped out, and they are now appearing?
I’m sure we’ll most likely find out in this arc, but it’s just something interesting worth thinking about.