Marquis Machina is particularly interesting in this panel because she's giving a very rare, very unique window into how the Archivistes thought about themselves:
Per Machina, the Archivistes gave meaning to their abilities by casting themselves as librarians. People must've thought, like they think of Noé, that they were a creepy clan with a dangerous power, but they held onto the belief that their powers exist for a noble purpose: recording and preventing the loss of memory. And perhaps, that being a way to prevent total death.
I find it moving because, as of chap 67, the Archivistes vanished from the historical record. Their ability did not prevent their disappearance. And Machina, in her small monologue, gives us the only glimpse at what they might've been.
And Noé, well, no one has explained to him what being an Archiviste means past the ability to read memories. There is no family tradition because he was abandoned, then enslaved, the bought and now treated as a scientific curiousity. At the beginning of the manga, it does seem he understands, but the knowledge only comes at the terrible cost of having to kill Vanitas, who he loves.