Herman's voice remained calm and steady.
However, after seeing the devastation he had caused and the gruesome corpse of Sabretooth, Wolverine Logan felt a chill crawl down his spine. He assumed Herman was preparing to make a move after eating and drinking his fill. Over his long life, he'd met too many people who appeared kind and harmless at first—only to reveal themselves as terrifying predators who toyed with others for amusement.
"I… don't think I'll be doing that."
Wolverine immediately raised both hands in a gesture of surrender.
To be fair, if it had been the younger version of him, he might have still held some brotherly affection for Sabretooth. But the soul within him now came from more than a century later—a time when Sabretooth had long since met his end, done in by his own cruelty.
For the future Logan controlling this younger body, Sabretooth was nothing more than a memory, a relic of the past.
Even without relying on instinct to tell him that Herman was far beyond his ability to challenge, the fact that Sabretooth had been killed didn't stir any anger in him. If anything, Wolverine felt that Sabretooth had simply reaped what he'd sown.
No one knew better than him how brutal and reckless Sabretooth could be. His end was nothing more than the consequence of the countless innocent lives he'd destroyed.
Karma, plain and simple.
Wolverine accepted it easily, showing none of the outrage Herman had expected.
"I see... Alright."
There was a trace of disappointment in Herman's tone—one that Wolverine's keen senses immediately caught.
He fell silent for a moment, feeling both speechless and uneasy. The man who'd saved his life was clearly powerful, but also had a twisted sense of humor.
"Does this guy actually want to kill me too?" he thought. "Good thing I didn't give him a reason!"
Anyone capable of killing Sabretooth couldn't possibly be weak. Wolverine knew exactly what kind of monster his brother had been.
In the near future, even after being transformed into a man fused with adamantium, his strength multiplied several times over—yet even then, facing Sabretooth, he couldn't guarantee victory.
Super strength, incredible endurance, inhuman defense, and rapid regeneration—Sabretooth had been the nightmare of countless mutants.
The only weakness he ever had was his mind. He'd died from losing his head, quite literally. But a seasoned fighter like Sabretooth wouldn't have just let that happen. Which meant the man sitting before Wolverine possessed power far beyond his imagination—enough to completely crush his brother.
It was a perfectly reasonable conclusion, and yet one that left him stunned.
This era…
Aside from that old professor, the damned Magneto, and the Black King, there was actually another mutant of such immense power?
"I had no idea someone like this even existed."
Coming from the future, Wolverine knew a great deal about the past. For an unknown powerhouse to suddenly appear now—it felt surreal, almost dreamlike. For a brief moment, he even wondered if this was truly time travel… or just some strange, vivid dream.
He knew everything about the future Avengers, about the Thanos crisis, about every major event that had shaken the world. Yet, for someone this powerful to exist during World War II—a man who had left no trace in history—was beyond belief.
It defied everything he knew. After all, at the X-Mansion, Wolverine had served as a history teacher.
He knew this world's history more thoroughly than most historians ever could.
"Maybe… it's the Butterfly Effect?" he wondered. But almost immediately, he dismissed the thought.
"No, that doesn't make sense… I just got here. I haven't done anything yet. How could the past already be this different?"
His gaze toward Herman grew more complex—filled with doubt, confusion, and a kind of quiet awe. He didn't realize his every thought was being laid bare to the man across from him.
"Want another skewer?"
Herman nearly laughed but kept his expression natural as he handed Wolverine another stick of grilled bear meat. As Wolverine's thoughts continued to churn, Herman silently drew more and more details about the future from the surface of his mind.
To be honest, Herman was just as baffled. Wolverine questioned his existence, but Herman couldn't fully understand Wolverine's future either.
This version of Wolverine had experienced countless major events across the Marvel Universe—yet every one of them seemed to have unfolded as if Herman had never interfered at all.
And yet, as someone who existed uniquely across time, Herman knew that the points in history he had influenced should have already altered the course of the future.
Take Wanda, for example.
With him around, there was no way he'd ever let her join the Avengers—or live that lonely life of tragedy. But in Wolverine's memories, when he recalled the Avengers, Wanda was still there.
That clear contradiction didn't just puzzle Herman—it unsettled him deeply.
Perhaps he hadn't just traveled through time—but through both time and a parallel dimension. That was the thought that crossed Herman's mind.
Both men seemed calm outwardly, yet their thoughts were running deep and tangled. Like Wolverine, Herman soon dismissed his own speculation.
Shadowcat's ability hadn't yet reached the level of multiversal travel. Besides, it was unlikely that an alternate version of the X-Mansion would attempt a "Days of Future Past" operation at such an early point in the timeline.
More importantly, within Wolverine Logan's memories, Herman had seen something that shouldn't exist in any parallel universe—the name Umbrella Corporation.
That alone made things far more curious.
According to Wolverine's memories, Umbrella had already gone bankrupt years before his time travel. He had only recalled it when thinking of great catastrophes—because, indeed, Umbrella had triggered one such disaster in his memory.
"Resident Evil…"
Herman's eyes flickered briefly as he processed what he had seen in Wolverine's mind. The memory revealed a shocking truth: one of Umbrella's research projects had spiraled out of control, causing a devastating crisis that engulfed an entire state. That catastrophe had led to the company's downfall.
In that future, Herman didn't exist.
However, this was easier to explain than Wanda's situation. After all, the influence of Herman's "existence" only extended to the portions of time he had personally lived through. The events Wolverine remembered—the Umbrella disaster—occurred several years after Herman's current era.
In a sense, Wolverine's memories might not even represent true history.
It was like Schrödinger's cat. Until Herman actually reached that point in time, the reality of that moment remained uncertain—a mere possibility waiting to solidify.
Only when he arrived would infinite outcomes collapse into a single, definitive reality shaped by his choices.
That was the essence of Herman's temporal uniqueness.
"Your cooking is incredible."
Wolverine still had no idea that his thoughts were being read—thoughts that had sparked a whole line of reasoning in Herman's mind.
Sensing the tension, Wolverine tried to lighten the mood. For someone not particularly good at conversation, complimenting another man's cooking was probably the best he could come up with.
"I'm a professional chef. Here, try this—clear-braised bear paw," Herman said, snapping back to the present and momentarily setting aside the strange revelations from Wolverine's future.
He wasn't intent on prying deeper into Wolverine's memories. As he'd already reasoned, those memories reflected Wolverine's reality—not necessarily the one Herman himself would experience.
Time, after all, was an abstract thing.
"Gulp, gulp, gulp~"
Wolverine didn't hesitate for a second. He took the bowl and bear paw from Herman and downed half the broth in one breath.
Those with a Healing Factor lived recklessly—too resilient to worry about burning their mouths, throats, or stomachs. Forget hot food—if it came to it, old Logan could probably drink molten lava.
"I thought you were some kind of bounty hunter…" Wolverine said between bites, speaking through a mouthful of food. "Your cooking's amazing. I've been to China before, but I've never eaten anything this good."
He paused briefly, perhaps out of politeness, before adding, "Of course, Chinese cuisine is delicious—better than most countries' food—but it's still not quite at your level."
The honest compliment drew a light, amused smile from Herman.
"A man can wear many hats. Don't let the cooking throw you off—maybe I really do work as a bounty hunter on the side," he joked.
He couldn't help thinking of his [All-Seeing Eye]; every time it assigned him a new identity, it loved to layer them like nesting dolls.
"Then I guess I'll just have to hope my head isn't on a bounty list," Wolverine Logan replied with an easy grin.
He was still a relatively unknown figure, constantly switching identities, so he knew full well there couldn't possibly be a bounty on him.
As for why his brother had been killed, Wolverine had his own theory. He suspected Sabretooth had tried to silence Herman and ended up getting himself killed instead. He knew his brother's fondness for torture and slaughter all too well.
To be fair, Wolverine's guess wasn't far off. Earlier, Sabretooth had indeed leapt out of nowhere, declaring that he'd take both Herman and Wolverine down together.
"Either way, I owe you my thanks," Wolverine said, his voice softening as he thought of his brother. The memory brought with it flashes of the times he'd been captured and tormented by Sabretooth. He didn't know how much being rescued this time might alter the future—but if it spared his past self some of that pain, that alone was reason enough to be grateful.
"You look pretty happy. But don't celebrate too soon—we still have something to settle," Herman said evenly.
Wolverine blinked in confusion.
"What do you mean?"
He stared at Herman, completely puzzled. His memories held no trace of this man, nor any incident involving a car crash.
"When you and your brother were fighting, you smashed my car," Herman said casually. "So, you're going to give me a lift to where I need to go."
"Let's call it compensation. Fair enough, right?"
Wolverine frowned for a second, then nodded. Herman's calm gaze gave nothing away, but there was something about the man that made him curious. And if sticking around meant learning more about him, so be it.
After all, there were worse ways to pass the time while waiting for the X-Mansion to fix their timeline mistake.
Besides, traveling with Herman might help him recall more about the future—and maybe even untangle the strange inconsistencies he'd noticed in his memories. For instance, how could Wanda, someone so deeply influenced by Herman's existence, still end up joining the Avengers?
"Huh?"
Wolverine froze, his thoughts spinning.
A wrecked car? That was awkward...
"No problem," he said quickly, recovering with a grin. "That's a reasonable request."
He didn't think Herman was lying. A man who could kill Sabretooth didn't need to make up excuses to manipulate him. So Wolverine didn't even bother asking where the car was—or where Herman wanted to go. He just agreed.
After all, he had time to kill. The X-Mansion had clearly sent him to the wrong era, and until they brought him back, it didn't really matter where he went.
As for what would happen to his past self once he returned to the future... well, whatever. It wouldn't be the first time he'd woken up drunk thousands of kilometers from where he started.
"I remember my car was somewhere nearby," Wolverine said after a moment, recalling that this was exactly where he'd run into Sabretooth while driving.
"Then what are we waiting for? Finish up and let's get going!"
Herman poured them each another glass of wine.
After they ate and drank their fill, the two set off together. A few miles later, they spotted the car Wolverine had mentioned.
It was, in every sense, very Wolverine-like—an old, black, beat-up sedan that had clearly changed owners more times than he cared to count.
Luckily, the fight between him and Sabretooth hadn't wrecked it. Wolverine stepped up to the car and, after an awkward moment, managed to start the engine.
"Is this really your car?" Herman asked with a hint of amusement, settling into the passenger seat as Wolverine fumbled with the controls.
"Uh... yeah. Just been a while since I drove it," Wolverine admitted sheepishly.
In truth, his awkwardness had a simple explanation. In the future, he'd been driving automatic cars for years—so adjusting to an old manual transmission again was more trouble than he cared to admit.
"Grrrrr… clunk, clunk…"
Despite the rough start, the old machine finally roared to life, sputtering and growling as it rolled forward. Wolverine steered them onto the open road.
"So, where are we headed?" he asked.
"New York."
A world map suddenly appeared in Herman's hand, and Wolverine shot him a sidelong glance.
He held the look for a moment, then returned his eyes to the road.
As a driver, Wolverine didn't need a map. He was the kind who could memorize every turn after seeing it once.
And so, the two drove through the night, talking idly along the way. Neither of them needed rest.
By the next morning, they'd already crossed into a new day—the day Herman had been waiting for.
The day when his cheat, the [All-Seeing Eye], would activate once again.