Thank you for your insight. I still feel like this sentence is kind of weird though.
Well it less that the sentence is strange and more that 人攫い is extremely shady.
Does it have to be a debt (of gratitude or otherwise) owed by the 人攫い? I thought maybe he does remember that the 弟 got away and is referring to the ‘debt’ owed him because he didn’t get his end of the deal, but… (oops, next week spoiler!!)
I don’t think I’ve come across 借り very much at all, so I’m sure I’m lost on the nuances. Not sure if this is a possible interpretation at all.
Maybe you should mark this as spoiler as we only learn about that in the following chapter
That cannot be it, since, in that case, no transaction can be possible He is trying to convince them that he has 弟 right there.
Also, 借りがある goes in the other direction, so that’s another reason why it cannot work like that.
I’m just going to drop the thesaurus link:
報いるべき恩義を感じているさま
So it is specifically for feeling debt of gratitudes. Interesting. (That’s the only use I have come across, but I was not sure it was the only possible)
@Naphthalene’s interpretation sounds right to me. The whole thing gave me a “I’m basically giving this kid away for free, but I’m indebted to him for being a repeat customer, so 仕方がない…” vibe.
Thank you!! Totally missed that this was the week 4 thread, sorry!
I was thinking there might be a double meaning since he is so shady (like formally announcing it to the 夜市 or something), but
since there’s that, nope. Thank you!