meaning of 身を切る


This is a passage from Ｒｅ：ゼロから始める異世界生活 2 light novel. Subaru has finished
telling Ram the Japanese story _The Ogre who cried_. story summary [by
Crunchyroll](http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-feature/2016/06/09/feature-
rezero-and-the-red-ogre-who-cried) (link contains spoilers for the anime
series)

> Put simply, the story is of two friends who just happen to be ogres, one red
> and one blue. The red wishes to befriend the people of the nearby village,
> but they fear him and see his attempts to befriend them as tricks. The blue
> ogre comes up with a plan in which he pretends to attack the village,
> telling the red ogre to rush in and save the day by chasing him off. It
> works perfectly and the village welcomes the red ogre, who becomes very
> happy. After some time, the red ogre begins to wonder what became of the
> blue ogre, so he travels to his house and finds a letter left by the blue
> ogre, who has gone away so the village won't discover the two ogres
> friendship. Realizing his friend has left forever, the red ogre weeps.

Ram is not happy with the behavior of Red and states her opinion plainly:

「……でもラムは、赤鬼の方が度し難いと思うわ

「自分の望みに青鬼を巻き込んで、結果、自分は何も失わずに青鬼に失わせただけ。ひどい結果があったものと、少なくともラムは思うわね」

「じゃあ、お前は鬼二人はどうすりゃよかったと思うんだ？」

「……赤鬼は、本気で人間と仲良くしたいと思っていたんなら、角でも折って人里へ下りればよかったのよ。青鬼が見ていられなくなる前に、 **身を切るべき**
だった」

I can’t quite figure out the exact meaning of `身を切る` here. It seems to be used
mainly in the figurative meaning of “cut (the body/flesh) like a knife”, e.g.
(from EDICT)

`身を切るよう` - piercing (cold), biting (wind)

But here it looks to be used in the literal meaning? Is she saying “he should
have cut his body (to cut off horns) before Blue had to leave”? Or is there
some other interpretation I’m missing?




This looks like some intentional wordplay by the author that juxtaposes the
usual figurative use (pay the price yourself) with the literal meaning (cut
your body) since it's Oni we're talking about here and their horns symbolize
their power/monstrousness and differentiate them from humans. So the answer to
your question is "it's both."




This looks like some intentional wordplay by the author that juxtaposes the
usual figurative use (pay the price yourself) with the literal meaning (cut
your body) since it's Oni we're talking about here and their horns symbolize
their power/monstrousness and differentiate them from humans. So the answer to
your question is "it's both."

