VNC Chapter 46.5
After a long hiatus, VNC makes its return! Mochizuki has decided to take pity on us; this year has been hard. She knows most of us aren't ready for heartbreak just yet, so she gave us a lighthearted chapter with the assurance the next one will crush us. I'm looking forward to it! :D
This is a really good chapter, though, so let's take a look. ^^
Dante says this is news to him, and it is indeed news to all of us! But honestly, this answers a lot of questions I've had. What do these two do with their free time? Apparently, Noé works a lot and he has this work because people trust him instantly. That sounds about right; there's not a single person in this series that dislikes Noé save for Astolfo.
Furthermore, we learn Noé doesn't have to work; the de Sades did give him money, which answers another question that has plagued me. Teacher didn't send him into the world without any funds at the very least. Noé's just responsible. Perhaps he learned something about money management from Teacher? Or maybe he just instinctively knows saving is a good idea?
We aren't told what Vanitas does with his free time, but we can guess.
I've often wondered if Vanitas spends as much time analyzing Noé as Noé spends analyzing Vanitas, and I think we can give that a resounding "yes." He'd have to to have this kind of knowledge of his habits and preferences. What this also tells us is that Vanitas cares enough not only to observe this information, but also to retain it and put it to use by going to find Noé when he wanders off. This surprises Dante who thought Vanitas would just leave him alone, which does seem more in character. Once again, Noé is the exception to how Vanitas normally conducts himself: he would have left anyone else to figure Paris out on their own.
So, to put it more bluntly, Vanitas probably spends a good deal of his time analyzing Noé, chasing after him once he's gone on an ill-conceived adventure, hanging out with Dante, and, it almost goes without saying at this point, hanging out with Noé.
I genuinely love this exchange because Dante has reached the obvious conclusion: Vanitas is spending an insane amount of time with Noé and yet Vanitas is trying to claim that "No, I just give him tours sometimes." Logically, he'd only need to give Noé a tour of Paris once, which we saw all the way back in chapter 2. The fact that he now has to explain he "only" gives Noé tours when he asks still means Noé is probably asking to go out a lot and that Vanitas is just going along with it.
So, Noé actually spends his free time doing a lot of stuff: working, chatting with the neighbors (so to speak), and hanging out with Vanitas. Vanitas seems to do less. He sometimes spends time with Dante and then he spends a ton of time with Noé. What's he doing when Noé is at work? XD Maybe reading? Or plotting? We don't really know what his hobbies are.
Regardless, we get an idea of how Vanitas and Noé get along. Furthermore, we even get a good contrast in the very next short story!
In this one, Roland has gone missing and the chasseurs go to Olivier to figure out where he might have gone. This seems like the logical thing to do: they're known to be friends.
But we quickly learn that Roland and Olivier have a very different relationship compared to Noé and Vanitas despite seeming to be similar on a surface level.
Dante thought Vanitas wouldn't look for Noé because Vanitas tends to be cold towards others and doesn't like attachment. However, not only is he willing to look for Noé, he's worried when he realizes he might have wandered off.
Here we see that both Amelia and Vanitas are used to this behavior from Noé and, while they're exasperated, they're also worried. In other words, Noé has friends that care about him and will worry about him.
Contrast this with Roland and Olivier. Maria and Georges go to him because he's friends with Roland. They assume he will care enough to look for him and that he might even share in their concern about where he's wound up.
Not only is Olivier not worried, he's seriously judging them for bothering him about the whole thing to begin with. Granted, some of that disgust and judgement is probably aimed at Roland as well. He regales us with a story about the last time he tried to find Roland when he was lost (unlike Noé he genuinely has a bad sense of direction) and how poorly it went. Even in the flashback we can see that Olivier did not want to look for Roland; he just wanted to get back to what he was doing as swiftly as possible.
This entire story is basically a foil to the previous one to give us an idea of how these two duos are different. So, let's take a moment to explore those exact differences.
1) Olivier doesn't worry about Roland and he is frustrated by his antics as well as how easily he gets lost. Vanitas does worry about Noé and, while exasperated, seems almost excited to go looking for him. Furthermore, Noé isn't "lost;" he just likes exploring.
2) Both Olivier and Vanitas know their partner exceedingly well. The main difference here is that Olivier has known Roland for years while Vanitas has known Noé for a couple months or so? I'm not sure about the timeline. Olivier has a good idea of the places Roland will go and the things he cares about (finding books for his brothers), but he can't totally predict his movements beyond that. Vanitas has an insane knowledge of what Noé is interested in and has it down to a science. Sure, he needed Dante's help, but that was minimal compared to what he already knew. Also, I think we can safely say that Olivier and Vanitas both keep tabs on their partner, but in very different ways. Olivier is mostly concerned about what trouble Roland is getting up to and how it inconveniences him. Vanitas seems to be going out of his way to understand Noé, much like Noé is with Vanitas.
3) Olivier and Roland have kind of a more normal friendship in the sense they get annoyed with each other and they bicker. They hold grudges (or at least Olivier does) and they don't spend all of their time together, and yet they clearly will work with one another and help each other out as we can see in Gévaudan. There's definitely trust there despite the annoyance.
Vanitas and Noé are unusual in that not only do they spend all their time with each other, they haven't gotten sick of one another yet. And while they argue, every single major argument (and they have been significant) is resolved pretty quickly and forgotten soon after. That is decidedly strange. They trust each other, but that level of trust would indicate they've known each at least as long as Roland and Olivier have, but instead it's been a very short amount of time. No wonder Roland is in awe of them; their friendship level is through the roof even if they haven't realized that yet. 8D
But what this short story also reveals is that Roland does have someone who understands him completely and who even used to admire him completely and that's Astolfo. This relationship still isn't like the one Noé and Vanitas have, however. Apparently, Astolfo used to worship Roland and admire him completely. Somewhat similar to how Noé admired Vanitas's ability to save vampires, but on a much higher level.
Once again, there is a significant difference: when Roland did something Astolfo disapproved of, he grew to hate him. In contrast, when Vanitas killed a vampire instead of "saving" her, Noé eventually realized he'd placed unfair expectations on him. He learned to accept Vanitas for who he is and took him off the pedestal he'd put him on.
Honestly, Roland's relationships are looking a lot more strained than Noé's. Also, I wonder what he did to upset Astolfo so much? It can't be that he decided to see vampires as people; Astolfo grew to hate him before he even met Vanitas and Noé (I think), so it must be something else. My guess is that it would have to do with religion, though. Roland is out there, following his own beliefs regardless of whether they match up with the Church's. I imagine this would upset Astolfo at some point. Maybe it's all of his failed relationships with women? XD I mean, dating that much doesn't really mesh with being a man of god all that well....
Also, I had wondered how Roland treated Astolfo. Since Astolfo hated him so much, I thought that maybe Roland treated him badly. However, it looks like Roland probably treated him well, like a little brother, so all that hatred is definitely stemming from something else entirely. Probably going to have to wait and see on that, but for now we know that Roland has at least two strained relationships and, judging by the background chatter in that earlier panel, a lot of chasseurs just don't like him. This is another difference between him and Noé: Everyone likes Noé. Not as many people like Roland.
But let's move on to the third short story. This one is about Louis and while it takes on a very different tone to the last two stories, it does provide some room for contrast. I think the most important detail to this story is that Louis wanted people to come looking for him. Noé and Roland didn't mean to cause any trouble or to make people worry about them (or get annoyed as the case may be). Louis absolutely was trying to provoke a reaction.
The purposefulness to this is just... unreal. XD He was spending time with Noé--they were each reading a book--and then he decides he's going to go get lost in the woods. In other words, he wanted to make Noé look for him. He prevented Noé from following him from the get go because, again, he wanted to make Noé look.
Now, we get to see what book Louis was reading, which prompted his leaving in the first place. It's about a boy who meets a fairy who then whisks him away into the forest. His family looks for him, but they don't find him. When they don't find him, they give up on him and move on with their lives. While this is sad, the boy then lives with the fairies, making friends there.
There's no way we're not supposed to read into this, so let's see what we can glean. Louis wasn't actually looking for a fairy, that much we can safely say, but he was trying to get Noé to look for him. And it is Noé specifically he wants, judging by this panel:
Dominique is there looking for him as well, but it's Noé's expression he hones in on. He's happy to see that Noé is anxious about him. Now, Louis was under a lot of stress, but this is still a mean thing to do to someone, but I don't think the point here was to prank Noé exactly. He wanted to see if Noé cared enough to look for him, to worry over him.
It's completely different from the previous two stories as I mentioned earlier. Noé and Roland aren't dealing with the possibility of dying or the possibility they'll be forgotten after they're gone. Louis is, and because he's young, rather than just ask Noé if he'll remember him, if he cares about him, he has to test him instead.
But I don't think we should ignore the fairy part of the book he was reading. Even though Louis didn't go out to meet a new friend, he eventually "disappeared." He was cursed and he died, but could he have been taken somewhere else? I've often wondered if curse bearers become a part of Charlatan. If that's the case, then Louis really is still around, but the people he cared about can no longer see him.
It figures even a short story about Louis would still be very sad. (^^)" I honestly hope we do hear more from him, whether in a flashback or in the present. I think there's a lot between him and Noé that still needs to be explored. Our current arc could be a good lead in to that, actually, since we're dealing with the de Sades and Noé's relationship to them and Dominique more specifically.
One last thing I'd like to point out: both Olivier, Vanitas, and Astolfo all demonstrated a certain understanding of the person who was lost. They could put themselves in their shoes and figure out at least some of what they might have gotten up to. However, when Louis is "lost," Dominique and Noé are incapable of guessing what he's really thinking. They have such ironclad belief in him that they believe he predicted the future rather than think he might be pranking them. In other words, they didn't understand Louis at all, and this is still one of Noé's greatest regrets to this day. Perhaps it's one of Dominique's as well.
This is a really good chapter, though, so let's take a look. ^^
Dante says this is news to him, and it is indeed news to all of us! But honestly, this answers a lot of questions I've had. What do these two do with their free time? Apparently, Noé works a lot and he has this work because people trust him instantly. That sounds about right; there's not a single person in this series that dislikes Noé save for Astolfo.
Furthermore, we learn Noé doesn't have to work; the de Sades did give him money, which answers another question that has plagued me. Teacher didn't send him into the world without any funds at the very least. Noé's just responsible. Perhaps he learned something about money management from Teacher? Or maybe he just instinctively knows saving is a good idea?
We aren't told what Vanitas does with his free time, but we can guess.
I've often wondered if Vanitas spends as much time analyzing Noé as Noé spends analyzing Vanitas, and I think we can give that a resounding "yes." He'd have to to have this kind of knowledge of his habits and preferences. What this also tells us is that Vanitas cares enough not only to observe this information, but also to retain it and put it to use by going to find Noé when he wanders off. This surprises Dante who thought Vanitas would just leave him alone, which does seem more in character. Once again, Noé is the exception to how Vanitas normally conducts himself: he would have left anyone else to figure Paris out on their own.
So, to put it more bluntly, Vanitas probably spends a good deal of his time analyzing Noé, chasing after him once he's gone on an ill-conceived adventure, hanging out with Dante, and, it almost goes without saying at this point, hanging out with Noé.
I genuinely love this exchange because Dante has reached the obvious conclusion: Vanitas is spending an insane amount of time with Noé and yet Vanitas is trying to claim that "No, I just give him tours sometimes." Logically, he'd only need to give Noé a tour of Paris once, which we saw all the way back in chapter 2. The fact that he now has to explain he "only" gives Noé tours when he asks still means Noé is probably asking to go out a lot and that Vanitas is just going along with it.
So, Noé actually spends his free time doing a lot of stuff: working, chatting with the neighbors (so to speak), and hanging out with Vanitas. Vanitas seems to do less. He sometimes spends time with Dante and then he spends a ton of time with Noé. What's he doing when Noé is at work? XD Maybe reading? Or plotting? We don't really know what his hobbies are.
Regardless, we get an idea of how Vanitas and Noé get along. Furthermore, we even get a good contrast in the very next short story!
In this one, Roland has gone missing and the chasseurs go to Olivier to figure out where he might have gone. This seems like the logical thing to do: they're known to be friends.
But we quickly learn that Roland and Olivier have a very different relationship compared to Noé and Vanitas despite seeming to be similar on a surface level.
Dante thought Vanitas wouldn't look for Noé because Vanitas tends to be cold towards others and doesn't like attachment. However, not only is he willing to look for Noé, he's worried when he realizes he might have wandered off.
Here we see that both Amelia and Vanitas are used to this behavior from Noé and, while they're exasperated, they're also worried. In other words, Noé has friends that care about him and will worry about him.
Contrast this with Roland and Olivier. Maria and Georges go to him because he's friends with Roland. They assume he will care enough to look for him and that he might even share in their concern about where he's wound up.
Not only is Olivier not worried, he's seriously judging them for bothering him about the whole thing to begin with. Granted, some of that disgust and judgement is probably aimed at Roland as well. He regales us with a story about the last time he tried to find Roland when he was lost (unlike Noé he genuinely has a bad sense of direction) and how poorly it went. Even in the flashback we can see that Olivier did not want to look for Roland; he just wanted to get back to what he was doing as swiftly as possible.
This entire story is basically a foil to the previous one to give us an idea of how these two duos are different. So, let's take a moment to explore those exact differences.
1) Olivier doesn't worry about Roland and he is frustrated by his antics as well as how easily he gets lost. Vanitas does worry about Noé and, while exasperated, seems almost excited to go looking for him. Furthermore, Noé isn't "lost;" he just likes exploring.
2) Both Olivier and Vanitas know their partner exceedingly well. The main difference here is that Olivier has known Roland for years while Vanitas has known Noé for a couple months or so? I'm not sure about the timeline. Olivier has a good idea of the places Roland will go and the things he cares about (finding books for his brothers), but he can't totally predict his movements beyond that. Vanitas has an insane knowledge of what Noé is interested in and has it down to a science. Sure, he needed Dante's help, but that was minimal compared to what he already knew. Also, I think we can safely say that Olivier and Vanitas both keep tabs on their partner, but in very different ways. Olivier is mostly concerned about what trouble Roland is getting up to and how it inconveniences him. Vanitas seems to be going out of his way to understand Noé, much like Noé is with Vanitas.
3) Olivier and Roland have kind of a more normal friendship in the sense they get annoyed with each other and they bicker. They hold grudges (or at least Olivier does) and they don't spend all of their time together, and yet they clearly will work with one another and help each other out as we can see in Gévaudan. There's definitely trust there despite the annoyance.
Vanitas and Noé are unusual in that not only do they spend all their time with each other, they haven't gotten sick of one another yet. And while they argue, every single major argument (and they have been significant) is resolved pretty quickly and forgotten soon after. That is decidedly strange. They trust each other, but that level of trust would indicate they've known each at least as long as Roland and Olivier have, but instead it's been a very short amount of time. No wonder Roland is in awe of them; their friendship level is through the roof even if they haven't realized that yet. 8D
But what this short story also reveals is that Roland does have someone who understands him completely and who even used to admire him completely and that's Astolfo. This relationship still isn't like the one Noé and Vanitas have, however. Apparently, Astolfo used to worship Roland and admire him completely. Somewhat similar to how Noé admired Vanitas's ability to save vampires, but on a much higher level.
Once again, there is a significant difference: when Roland did something Astolfo disapproved of, he grew to hate him. In contrast, when Vanitas killed a vampire instead of "saving" her, Noé eventually realized he'd placed unfair expectations on him. He learned to accept Vanitas for who he is and took him off the pedestal he'd put him on.
Honestly, Roland's relationships are looking a lot more strained than Noé's. Also, I wonder what he did to upset Astolfo so much? It can't be that he decided to see vampires as people; Astolfo grew to hate him before he even met Vanitas and Noé (I think), so it must be something else. My guess is that it would have to do with religion, though. Roland is out there, following his own beliefs regardless of whether they match up with the Church's. I imagine this would upset Astolfo at some point. Maybe it's all of his failed relationships with women? XD I mean, dating that much doesn't really mesh with being a man of god all that well....
Also, I had wondered how Roland treated Astolfo. Since Astolfo hated him so much, I thought that maybe Roland treated him badly. However, it looks like Roland probably treated him well, like a little brother, so all that hatred is definitely stemming from something else entirely. Probably going to have to wait and see on that, but for now we know that Roland has at least two strained relationships and, judging by the background chatter in that earlier panel, a lot of chasseurs just don't like him. This is another difference between him and Noé: Everyone likes Noé. Not as many people like Roland.
But let's move on to the third short story. This one is about Louis and while it takes on a very different tone to the last two stories, it does provide some room for contrast. I think the most important detail to this story is that Louis wanted people to come looking for him. Noé and Roland didn't mean to cause any trouble or to make people worry about them (or get annoyed as the case may be). Louis absolutely was trying to provoke a reaction.
The purposefulness to this is just... unreal. XD He was spending time with Noé--they were each reading a book--and then he decides he's going to go get lost in the woods. In other words, he wanted to make Noé look for him. He prevented Noé from following him from the get go because, again, he wanted to make Noé look.
Now, we get to see what book Louis was reading, which prompted his leaving in the first place. It's about a boy who meets a fairy who then whisks him away into the forest. His family looks for him, but they don't find him. When they don't find him, they give up on him and move on with their lives. While this is sad, the boy then lives with the fairies, making friends there.
There's no way we're not supposed to read into this, so let's see what we can glean. Louis wasn't actually looking for a fairy, that much we can safely say, but he was trying to get Noé to look for him. And it is Noé specifically he wants, judging by this panel:
Dominique is there looking for him as well, but it's Noé's expression he hones in on. He's happy to see that Noé is anxious about him. Now, Louis was under a lot of stress, but this is still a mean thing to do to someone, but I don't think the point here was to prank Noé exactly. He wanted to see if Noé cared enough to look for him, to worry over him.
It's completely different from the previous two stories as I mentioned earlier. Noé and Roland aren't dealing with the possibility of dying or the possibility they'll be forgotten after they're gone. Louis is, and because he's young, rather than just ask Noé if he'll remember him, if he cares about him, he has to test him instead.
But I don't think we should ignore the fairy part of the book he was reading. Even though Louis didn't go out to meet a new friend, he eventually "disappeared." He was cursed and he died, but could he have been taken somewhere else? I've often wondered if curse bearers become a part of Charlatan. If that's the case, then Louis really is still around, but the people he cared about can no longer see him.
It figures even a short story about Louis would still be very sad. (^^)" I honestly hope we do hear more from him, whether in a flashback or in the present. I think there's a lot between him and Noé that still needs to be explored. Our current arc could be a good lead in to that, actually, since we're dealing with the de Sades and Noé's relationship to them and Dominique more specifically.
One last thing I'd like to point out: both Olivier, Vanitas, and Astolfo all demonstrated a certain understanding of the person who was lost. They could put themselves in their shoes and figure out at least some of what they might have gotten up to. However, when Louis is "lost," Dominique and Noé are incapable of guessing what he's really thinking. They have such ironclad belief in him that they believe he predicted the future rather than think he might be pranking them. In other words, they didn't understand Louis at all, and this is still one of Noé's greatest regrets to this day. Perhaps it's one of Dominique's as well.