These flashback episodes are always interesting with Vanitas no Carte.  Mochizuki-sensei has a deft touch with them and seems rather fond of them – they happen a lot in all her series.  Chloe was always going to be set up as a sympathetic character – that much was obvious from the time of her interactions with young Jeanne (yes, in another flashback).  The extent to which she’s a victim is still to be determined, however.  She’s consorting with the wrong people and superficially at least it’s by choice.

The connections between Ruthven (August to his friends) and Naenia run deep.  A lot of it revolves around this idea of the “World Formula Alteration Device”.  That was the MacGuffin of the D’Apchier family for generations, after the initial goal (just how old isn’t clear) of turning Chloe back from vampire to human warped into researching the device.  That was obviously what drew Ruthven to Chloe in the first place, and it was Jeanne’s presence that opened Chloe’s eyes to the world she was missing out on (which was most likely his plan all along).

One might speculate that Ruthven was trying to manipulate Chloe into voluntarily giving up her name to Naenia in exchange for a wish (apparently the only way Naenia could get it).  That is pure speculation for the moment, as would be conjecture as to his motives.  And this wish?  There are numerous possibilities but on tends to think it involves Jean-Jacques in some way – he seems, after all, to be her antidote to the loneliness she only realized she was feeling after Jeanne came and went.  Or it might simply have been for success in creating the WAFD – which would be another obvious reason for August to manipulate Chloe into making a wish.

Despite Chloe and August’s falling out we know both are in league with Naenia.  Noe and Vanitas of course want to help Chloe, but Noe has a bit of a freak-out at the revelation – he has a personal vendetta with Naenia over Louis.  The issue of course is that Chloe doesn’t want to be helped. which puts the onus on Vanitas (he’s the thinker in the pair to be sure) to save her when she doesn’t consider in need of (and indeed may not be worthy of) saving.