He sounded slightly astonished, his tone filled with disbelief.
The first thing Wolverine said after waking immediately caught Herman's attention.
Something was off.
Very off.
After being beaten half to death and losing consciousness, shouldn't his first words have been something like "I'm still alive?" or "I can't believe I survived"? Normally, he should've snapped awake on full alert, ready to fight.
But instead, he took a long moment to gather himself, surveyed his surroundings for a while, then muttered, "I really came back." That kind of reaction didn't fit the scene at all. It wasn't as if he'd just crawled back from the realm of the dead...
Wait.
The soul... returning?
Herman had been watching Wolverine Logan with surprise, but as the thought crossed his mind, his eyes flickered sharply.
Could it be? Was this really what he suspected?
"Who are you?"
Wolverine Logan finally began adapting to his body again. Only now did he seem to notice Herman's presence—clear proof that something was wrong with him.
With such a big fire and a man sitting right there, any normal person would've noticed instantly. But Wolverine took minutes.
His mind was clearing up. His survival instincts kicked in, and in one swift motion he was on his feet, taking a defensive stance, ready to fight. Facing the unfamiliar Herman, the lone wolf finally showed the vigilance expected of him.
"Take it easy, will you? You've been out for hours. If I meant you harm, you wouldn't still be alive."
Herman looked calm, eyelids half-lowered as he rotated the skewered bear meat over the flames with a willow branch. He had some guesses about Logan's condition but kept a straight face, shooting him a look of mild disdain.
"Actually, you should be calling me your savior," Herman said while turning the meat with practiced ease—his technique more refined than many grill masters.
The flames kissed the meat, triggering the Maillard reaction—the chemical dance of proteins and carbohydrates that created the flavor of cooked food. Herman noticed Wolverine swallowing hard.
Yet, despite his age-worn, stern expression, the "old man" didn't linger on the food. A flicker of hesitation passed over Logan's face.
"My savior?"
He stayed cautious, a reflex honed over years. Until he figured out whether Herman was friend or foe, he wouldn't lower his guard.
"You saved me..."
Logan frowned, confusion flickering as he tried to recall what had happened before he blacked out.
He'd been fighting in World War II.
And—he'd fallen out with his brother. Different beliefs, a sense of betrayal. His brother had decided to get rid of him once and for all.
"At that time... I was still in the Soviet Union. I had a clash with Sabretooth. He almost killed me..." Wolverine muttered to himself.
Herman's eyes narrowed slightly.
Logan wasn't exactly subtle. A pure warrior, yes—but terrible at keeping secrets. That one sentence had given away too much.
"You stopped Sabreto... the big guy?"
Logan had almost said "Sabretooth," but figured Herman wouldn't know the name. Given how sensitive the "mutant" identity was, he chose not to say more, probing cautiously instead.
"Of course," Herman replied, nodding slightly while still tending the roast. He already felt confident he'd read Logan's situation correctly.
To be honest, this whole thing was absurd.
"Yeah... you really did save me. Thanks."
Logan's tone was sincere, though his look at Herman was still strange. Still, he offered genuine gratitude—and his wariness eased considerably.
"Something's not right..."
His expression grew more complex as fragments of memory returned. Herman hadn't lied—without his intervention, Sabretooth would've captured and tortured him for months.
But that was exactly what confused him.
If that memory was right... then why, in this timeline, was there suddenly a young Eastern man standing there as his savior?
It didn't match his memories at all.
"Kitty's ability can really let us rewind time!" Wolverine Logan's memories were becoming clearer as he gradually regained consciousness.
"But… no, this isn't right. The timeline's wrong. I shouldn't be back at this point in time… and I definitely shouldn't be running into some Easterner here." Though Wolverine wasn't speaking aloud, the thoughts surfacing in his mind were completely visible to Herman.
"So that's how it is…"
Herman understood instantly.
Just as he had suspected, Wolverine Logan's condition wasn't normal—it was something far more extraordinary.
Herman recalled the story of the X-Men. He was certain that this version of Wolverine Logan was the one from X-Men: Days of Future Past.
That was a period far ahead of Herman's own time, when the X-Men were facing true extinction.
Mutants had been poisoned through their food and water, causing even the most powerful abilities to weaken or disappear.
And it didn't stop there.
The remaining mutants were relentlessly hunted by the new specialized combat robots known as Sentinels—machines created and commanded by Bolivar Trask, founder of Trask Industries. They were terrifying weapons, ones even Professor X and Magneto couldn't defeat.
The Sentinels could detect any kind of mutant and instantly alter their own genetic structure to counter and eliminate them. They were created after Mystique's genes were decoded—an abomination born from her DNA.
Mutants stood on the brink of extinction.
Their only hope lay in Shadowcat, Kitty, whose ability allowed the long-lived Wolverine, Logan, to travel back in time and change history.
Yes.
The Wolverine standing before Herman now was, like him, someone who had come from the future—sent back into this point in history.
Herman had crossed over physically.
Logan, however, had only his consciousness sent back into his past body.
'Days of Future Past… and he ended up here?'
Truthfully, Herman was a little stunned.
Not because Wolverine had come from the future—he had already guessed that much.
What left him feeling both amused and helpless was the chaotic swirl of emotions he sensed from Wolverine's active mind. This Wolverine, burdened with the task of saving the future… seemed to have traveled to the wrong point in time.